


(Life) Guard my Heart

by HeyLittleLady



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Lifeguards, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Flirting, Blow Jobs, Character's Name Spelled as Hanji, Coach Eren Jaeger, College Student Eren Yeager, Drunken Shenanigans, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eren Yeager is in Denial, Feelings Realization, Female Hange Zoë, First Dates, Flirting, Fluff, Hand Jobs, Humor, Levi Being an Asshole (Shingeki no Kyojin), Lifeguard Eren Yeager, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Armin Arlert/Annie Leonhart, Minor Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Ymir, Minor Mikasa Ackerman/Jean Kirstein, Minor Sasha Blouse/Connie Springer, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Eren Yeager, POV Third Person, Pining, Sassy Eren Yeager, Sloppy Makeouts, Slow Build, Strangers to Lovers, Swimming Pools, only slightly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 64,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26592811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyLittleLady/pseuds/HeyLittleLady
Summary: Levi was pretty gruff and crude, but Eren kind of liked that about him—it at least made him more interesting to talk to than the rest of the regulars. The fact that he was pretty easy on the eyes certainly helped things a bit, and Eren definitely liked looking at the man, liked looking at him a lot. He sat up straighter in the guard chair, realization dawning on him along with a sense of dread. Did he like Levi?A new regular shows up to Eren's lap swim shift at the pool, making his mornings a little more interesting.
Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 120
Kudos: 278





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stranger and a name

Eren never really cared for the morning shifts. On one hand, work forcing him up at 5 am every day of the week made sure he didn’t royally fuck up his sleep schedule, and the early start made him more productive. On the other hand, he had to wake up at 5 am every day, which in and of itself sucked ass most of the time. The humidity of the pool didn’t help in keeping him awake and neither did sitting there staring at lap swimmers. He liked most of his patrons, he really did, but he’d be a lot more eager to listen to Pixis prattle on about his weekend with his ex-wife when it wasn’t the crack of dawn. Besides, it was almost always the same people coming at the same times, so there wasn’t much variety to the job. But then again, if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t still be lifeguarding for the third year in a row.

The day started like any other. It was Monday, meaning Eren was a little more tired than usual from a weekend of hanging with friends and staying up later that he should’ve. Sasha was running late—again—but she promised Eren she would only be 15 minutes late this time _and_ would bring him coffee, so he couldn’t be that mad at her. At this point, he should’ve just expected her to run late, undoubtably coming in with some sort of breakfast food she just had to stop and grab, so he set about opening up the pool by himself, unlocking the doors, turning on lights, and checking the chemicals and pumps. Clocking himself in, he looked at the list of cleaning duties Hanji wrote out for each shift. Thankfully, morning shifts usually had easy duties and today’s task was just cleaning windows. Sick.

Sasha burst in while he was wiping off the last of the Windex. “I’m here! Here! Sorry again Eren. I’d say it won’t happen again, but we both know that’s a lie,” she puffed out, shrugging her shoulders. “Anyways, here’s your coffee. Cold brew with cream and two sugars,” she said, shaking the drink at him.

“Thanks Sasha. Definitely needed it this morning.”

“You’re welcome! But you still have to go up first, since I started on stand last shift,” Sasha called, retreating back into the guard office. Eren groaned, following her in—she’d come rotate him out in half an hour, but he was really looking forward to enjoying his coffee first. The two chatted, Sasha munching on the breakfast burrito that made her so late, until Eren realized it was time to open. As he clambered up into the guard chair, readying himself to be bored out of his mind, Sasha went to unlock the door.

Ilse and Keith came in almost immediately, both walking in and claiming their usual lanes—Shadis as far away as possible in lane 8 and Ilse in the middle in lane 3. Eren never understood why they hurried to claim their spots since it wasn’t like anyone else ever showed up this early to compete with them. He watched them set down their stuff, warming up and jumping into the pool, letting his own thoughts drift to the classes he had later today and the homework he’d need to do after his shift.

He was in the middle of debating if he should work on next week’s paper or write that discussion board he’d been putting off when he heard the door open and shut. He glanced over, at first thinking Sasha had just run out into the hallway, then did a double take when he realized it was a patron and one that he’d definitely never seen before. The man stopped by the guard office, presumably asking some question about the pool, but Eren didn’t look too closely, deciding he should probably be watching the people currently in the pool, you know, doing the job he was paid to do. He turned his attention back to the lap swimmers. The new guy was too far away for him to really see much detail about him anyways.

Shadis was on his sixth lap—that’s how Eren had decided to spend the rest of this rotation, counting how many laps Keith swam today, real exciting stuff—when the man dove into the pool. Goggles and a swim cap obscured what most of his head looked like, but damn, what a body. The man obviously worked out, if the defined arms, broad shoulders, and chiseled thighs that clung to his jammers were anything to go by. Eren regretted not paying attention to him earlier since it was hard to ogle him while he was furiously front crawling. Thankfully the man claimed lane 1, the lane directly in front of and almost below the guard stand, and Eren thanked whatever god was out there that he got such an up-close view. He told himself he wasn’t a creep, wouldn’t stare unnecessarily or overtly at the man, but was just extremely appreciative that he finally got a decent looking human being to guard instead of old people. Ilse was sweet and pretty young compared to most of their patrons, but Eren didn’t swing that way, and Shadis was Shadis, so if Eren spent most of his time watching the new patron, it was merely coincidence.

Before he knew it, Sasha was coming to rotate him out, a fact he silently lamented because the man had only gotten there a few minutes ago. “So uh,” he started as she climbed up on stand, “you ever seen this guy before?” He was a little curious about the guy, so sue him.

“Nope, not on any of my shifts. He asked me a couple questions about the pool, so I’m assuming he’s new,” she responded, taking Eren’s place in the chair.

“Huh. Wonder if he’ll become a regular,” he said, climbing down. Sasha shrugged.

“I dunno. I kinda hope so. He’s not bad looking, so it’s a nice change from all the regulars.” They laughed as Eren made his way back to the office for his break.

He told himself he’d be productive on break, catch up on some readings, but he mostly spent his time slurping coffee and dicking around on his phone. Before he knew it, his time was up. Such was the drawback of 30-minute rotations: you weren’t stuck up on stand forever, but it sure as hell felt like it while guarding and your breaks went by too quickly, well, too quickly for Eren’s liking. He grabbed his guard tube with a sigh and went to swap out with Sasha.

At least the new guy hadn’t left yet. He scanned the water to make sure Ilse and Shadis hadn’t drowned, then focused his attention back on the man. He’d switched to breaststroke this time around, slicing his hands through the water with practiced ease. So, this guy actually knew how to swim—well obviously, Eren thought to himself, otherwise he would’ve had to jump in and rescue him a while ago. But compared to most lap swimmers, he actually had pretty good form and technique, following through with his strokes, using the full extension of his body to propel himself forward. He seemed natural in the water. Eren watched as the man finished up his lap, coming to a stop at the end of the lane and grabbing the water bottle he had stashed there, drinking from it long and slow, no doubt starting to get worn out. He treaded water for a bit, seeming to catch his breath as his chest rose up and down—and yeah, it was a pretty nice chest to look at. Eren was content to stare at it more until the man looked up, seeming to meet his gaze through his goggles. Of course, Eren couldn’t tell for sure since they were tinted, but he hastily turned to watch the other two lap swimmers as if he’d been doing so all along regardless.

The new guy pushed off the wall and resumed his laps, making Eren breathe a sigh of relief. He continued his breaststroke for a while, switching to butterfly after a couple more laps. At 6:45 Mrs. Springer and Mrs. Kirstein walked in, right on time as per usual. The two moms liked to walk in the shallow end and gossip, but mostly gossip. They waved to Eren as they headed into the water, calling out greetings to him. He liked when they came in on Tuesdays and Thursdays the most, since that was when he worked mornings with Connie, and his mother enjoyed teasing him to no end when she was there, much to the annoyance of her son and to Eren’s amusement. He turned back to watching the lap swimmers and realized that the new guy had begun his cool down. Damn. He couldn’t watch him swim anymore, but maybe now he’d get to see what his face looked like.

He swam a couple laps slowly, but when the man came to the shallow end of the lap lane, he stopped abruptly, shucking off his swim cap and goggles. And hot damn, Eren wasn’t expecting him to be that hot. Delicate but sharp features, piercing eyes, a jawline just as chiseled as his abs. He had a pretty nice body to look at, but a good-looking face to match? Eren must’ve hit the jackpot. The man dunked himself under the water, popping back up to slick his disheveled hair back, revealing the undercut hidden beneath. He stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders as Eren stared on, watching the way the muscles rippled under his pale skin. The man began stretching his legs, bending one leg to loosen up his thighs—god, what great thighs they were—turning his head to look directly at Eren, those sharp eyes seeming to stare right into his soul. Oh fuck, he was on to him.

“What?”

“You!” Great, great, real fucking smooth Jaeger. “You’re uh, you’re new right?” He clarified. Ok, decent save, totally normal conversation.

The man quirked an eyebrow. “Stunning observation, eagle eyes.” He turned back to stretching, swapping legs.

“I just-I mean,” Eren cleared his throat before continuing, making the man look up. “I’ve never seen you around before, and I know all the regulars. It’s not like we have a ton of people coming through here,” he said, glancing around at the other swimmers. “I’m Eren,” he finished with a smile.

“Right.” The dubious look on his face didn’t give Eren any confidence. The man pushed himself out of the pool, walking back behind Eren to retrieve his towel from the other end of the pool. God he really, _really_ wanted to take a peek at his ass as he walked by, but Eren didn’t dare to. He’d already made himself look like a complete idiot once today: he didn’t need to embarrass himself further. Instead he resolutely stared at the two moms in the shallow end.

He heard footsteps come from the side, then snake behind him before trotting off the other side. Eren turned, calling out a hasty “Have a good day!” to the retreating figure. The man held up a hand in a wave, but didn’t turn around. Once he entered the locker room and was out of sight, Eren groaned, dropping his head in his hands. He’d super fucked that up.

“Eren.” He looked up then down towards the sound of Sasha’s voice to find her standing at the bottom of the guard stand. “What the hell was that?”

He stood up to let her clamber up to the chair, sighing. “I panicked. He was hot and caught me off guard and I gay panicked. What do you want me to tell you, Sash?”

“Well I hope you didn’t scare him off,” she replied, plopping down. “He’s the only hot one we have here. I’m tired of having to look at Shadis all the time.”

Eren slunk his way back into the guard office. The rest of his shift was spent replaying his blunder in his head, half hoping he did scare off the man so he wouldn’t have to face his embarrassment again.

***

The man showed up again the next day at the same time. Eren didn’t even realize it until he rotated Connie. It was only him and Pixis in the pool today, giving Eren even less options of things to look at than the day before. He decided to just stare at Pixis the whole time in an attempt to save himself from further embarrassment. It went well until Eren got bored, his eyes drifting back to the new guy unconsciously before he caught himself and doubled his resolve. By the time Connie came to switch him out, he felt like his eyes were about to fall out of his head.

“This guy’s new. Or at least I’ve never seen him.”

Eren clipped out a short “Yep,” in a rush for Connie to hurry up and swap with him so he could go hide in the office before the new guy realized he was here.

Connie didn’t buy it though, giving him a doubtful look and refusing to sit down. “Sure,” he said, dragging out the word, waiting on Eren to fess up.

“Ok fine, he was here yesterday,” he hissed in a low voice. “And I made myself look like an idiot in front of him and now he probably thinks I’m a weirdo. So will you please rotate me before he sees me?”

“Ok, ok, chill out dude.” He sat down, calling out once Eren climbed down, “Dude’s pretty ripped, I can see why you embarrassed yourself.”

“Connie, I will throw you in this fucking pool I swear to god.” He stalked away while flipping his coworker off, bright red ears betraying his mortification as Connie laughed.

He spent his break throwing himself into his homework, only ever looking up to check the time. Seeing his break was almost over, Eren was about to wrap up when movement caught his eye. He looked over just in time to make awkward eye contact with the man from yesterday before he turned around and headed towards the locker room. God dammit.

***

Wednesday and Thursday went the same. The man would show up at exactly the same time, Eren would avoid looking at him the entire time, and then inevitably slip up and make accidental awkward eye contact with him. When Friday morning rolled around, Eren had spent his entire drive to work bracing himself for whatever embarrassment he would encounter today. He clocked in and cleaned while thinking of things to look at besides the man. The whole first rotation consisted of him stressing himself out, looking at the clock every minute and watching as it counted down when the man would arrive. And then it ticked past.

Eren sat upright in the guard chair. Ok, maybe he was just late today. Now he’d have to be even more alert if the man could burst in at any time. Not like he ever really burst in, more like casually walked in. But the sentiment still stood, and if anything, Eren was even more anxious now than when he expected the man to show up on time. Even Hanji could sense it when she came to rotate him.

“Everything okay, Eren? You seem on edge. Did Nick finally drown?”

Her comment made him laugh. “Unfortunately not. Just uh, little stressed out with classes I guess.” He knew he was making this whole thing a bigger deal in his mind than it actually was, and telling anyone the truth—especially his boss—would be embarrassing. Hanji was actually the Aquatic Supervisor at the recreation center, so typically she was in her office, in city meetings, or running around making sure the pool wouldn’t explode. This was her only shift that she worked as a guard since all of the other lifeguards had class, and making Eren work a 4-hour shift by himself would not only be cruel and exhausting, but unsafe. Eren loved working with Hanji, but working one-on-one with your boss could be a little bit stressful even when he knew he was great at his job. Well, great at his job except for when he stared at attractive patrons.

She punched his arm playfully as she took over the stand. “Well, don’t let it get to you too much. Can’t have my favorite guard getting distracted on the job, now can we?” she replied with a wink.

Eren snorted in response. “Sure Hanji, I’ll try.”

Hanji’s joking had chilled him out some, but he still kept his eyes open for the man, just waiting for him appear when he wasn’t paying attention. Every time he got up on stand, he scanned the water furiously, double, triple checking to make sure he didn’t sneak in somehow. Before he knew it, his shift was almost over. The man hadn’t shown up after all. The thought made Eren relieved, albeit a little guilty. He really hoped he hadn’t shown just because of him. He’d feel bad if he scared him off, even if Eren kind of didn’t want him to come.

***

Eren spent the weekend hanging out with friends, procrastinating his readings and homework, and then cramming last minute to do said homework. By Monday morning, he was regretting staying up so late. Sasha was running late once again, so he could count on her to bring him some caffeinated relief. He sluggishly went through his opening duties, chugging the coffee Sasha passed him when she arrived, and plopped down at the desk, happy that she agreed to go up first today. He spent his break scrolling through his phone in a haze, waiting for the caffeine to finally kick in. By the time it was his turn to rotate, he still felt tired, mentally kicking himself for not going to bed sooner last night.

He climbed up on the stand, scanning the water to see who all was here today. Shadis in the far lane: check. Ilse in the middle: check. Hot guy in the first lane: fuck. He’d slipped in without notice when Eren was on break. At least this meant that he hadn’t scared him off after all. Eren tried to keep his eyes off of him as much as possible, he really did. But he was exhausted, and there wasn’t much else to look at, and the man was very, very attractive, so was it really his fault if his eyes kept drifting back to lane one? Plus, it was kind of his job to look at the man, of course in a completely professional sense. And Eren was strictly professional. He was looking respectfully. And so he did his job like normal, eyes trailing back and forth between Shadis, Ilse, and the new guy, just maybe with a little more emphasis on the man in lane one.

***

Eren had no new issues with the man until Thursday. He showed up when Eren was on stand and there were no obvious problems. He got in the water like normal, Eren watched him a little more than everyone else like normal, then Connie rotated him out and he went on break like normal. After his break, he rotated Connie like normal, watched the patrons like normal, and had the man stare directly at him during his cooldown like…

Eren glanced around behind him to make sure that yes, the man was looking at him, since no one else was around. He turned around slowly, leaning forward slightly in his chair to ask, “Is there something I can help you with, sir?”

The man looked at him for a moment longer, continuing to stretch his arms without breaking eye contact. “You look at me a lot.” It wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t quite an accusation either. Ah fuck, so he had noticed.

“I mean…that’s kind of my job. Being a lifeguard and all,” he trailed off, scratching his neck nervously. The man narrowed his eyes. Even Eren knew it was a flimsy excuse. Before the man could reply he continued, “But uh, your form. Like your swimming technique, I mean. You’re really good, definitely a better swimmer than most of the patrons, but you’re kind of stiff with your feet. If you relax your ankles, it’ll make your kicks more powerful. Just…something I noticed.”

It wasn’t a bullshit answer. In the past few days, Eren had been watching him, not just his body. The man would swim 500 meters of a stroke before switching off to the next one. He almost always swam front crawl, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, in that order. He’d usually stop for water every 15 minutes. And although his swimming was great—Eren wasn’t lying about that either—it was a little loose around the edges, but so was almost every swimmer who didn’t have a coach constantly on their ass about technique.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the man responded cryptically, turning away from Eren to climb out of the pool. Eren breathed a sigh of relief when he disappeared into the locker room.

***

It was another week and a half before he spoke to the man again. Eren had gotten used to him coming almost every shift, accepting that he was now a regular. He at least no longer felt painfully embarrassed or awkward every time he looked at him. But despite him coming in so often, Eren knew almost nothing about the man besides his swimming routine.

And so he found himself absentmindedly thinking about the man. How old was he? He looked late 20s, no older than 30, but then again, he never got a super close look at his face. What did he do? Where did he work? Why didn’t he come on Fridays? Why did he never talk to Eren? He tried to tell himself it wasn’t personal, that he seemed like the strong silent type anyways, and that not every patron overshared as much as Pixis, but it didn’t stop him from wondering. The man in question had stopped for a water break, chugging from his bottle before catching Eren’s eye.

“So, what am I fucking up this time?” he called out dryly. Technically, Eren should have yelled at him for his language—family friendly pool and all—but no one was paying attention and he didn’t think the man would take too kindly to being yelled at.

Eren barked out a laugh. “Nothing actually. Your kicks have gotten a lot better.” The man didn’t respond, turning around to place his water bottle back on the pool edge. As he looked ready to push off and resume his laps, Eren stuttered out, “Hey, what’s your name?” The man paused, looking up at Eren with what he could only assume was a questioning look since goggles obscured his eyes. “Just uh, you’re pretty much a regular now. And I know all the regulars, since I’m here every morning. That’s Shadis and Ilse,” he pointed to the lanes beyond the man, “and sometimes Mrs. Kirstein and Mrs. Springer come in. Then Dimo and Flegel, and Pixis, and sometimes Hannes, but they all come in after you leave. But I was just curious, you don’t have to tell me,” he finished lamely.

The man seemed to consider the question, and just when Eren was about to give up and tell him that it really was fine if he didn’t want to give up his apparently super top-secret name, he huffed out an answer.

“It’s Levi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly tip from your local lifeguard: Scanning your water is important! Do not be like Eren and get distracted by hot guys
> 
> Eren works with Sasha M & W, Connie T & Th, and Hanji on Fridays
> 
> This was meant to be a short little one-shot or like a 2 parter thing and uh...idk what happened but now I have a multichap fic, so enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tension and confrontation

It was Monday again, a few more weeks after the last time he spoke to Levi, and he was finally used to the man being there, at least enough to no longer stare at him, avoid him completely, or stutter out something awkward every time he talked to him. It was also the start of midterms. All Eren had done this weekend was study and he planned to spend every free moment this week cramming even more. But at the moment, all he really wanted to do was go back to sleep. He was worn out, tired, and frankly a little cranky. He scrubbed at the windows with a little more force than necessary. Even Sasha noticed when she came in, promising to make his coffee a double shot on Wednesday.

“Could it be a double shot of vodka instead? I’m dying Sash,” he grumbled as they finished opening the pool.

“Hey, you’re not the only one dying. Midterms are going to kick my ass,” she responded before putting on a fake smile for the patrons as she unlocked the doors and let them inside. “Rock paper scissors for who goes up first?”

They dueled it out best two out of three, Sasha beating him in the first two rounds.

“C’mon Sasha, you didn’t even give me a chance,” Eren whined, dragging his feet.

She gave him a sheepish smile but didn’t relent, “Rules are rules, sorry Eren.”

He grumbled under his breath up to the chair, plopping down heavily with a sigh. He tried to concentrate on something to keep himself alert, but his mind kept reminding him of the upcoming tests, which only made him more anxious, not more awake. His Theory and Ethics of Coaching class was going to be the biggest bitch—it was his favorite class and he loved going, but Jesus did his professor have to make the exam 100 multiple choice questions _and_ 20 short essay questions? He always hated writing. And don’t even get him started on Exercise Physiology. He’d stared at the textbook for hours last night, but nothing was absorbing. Even thinking about it was putting him in a worse mood. With a start Eren realized Levi had already arrived, climbing into the shallow end with a splash. He fiddled with his swim cap, looking just as tired as Eren, if not worse, if the bags under his eyes were anything to go by. He strapped his goggles on, grimacing at the prospect of diving into the cold water, before pushing off to begin his morning swim. At least Eren wasn’t the only one suffering today.

But Levi’s exhaustion was obviously getting to him: his normally great form was suffering. His ankles were tensed up and he kept stopping his strokes short instead of following all the way through. It was obvious he was only getting more and more frustrated with himself by the way his strokes were violently slashing through the water, nowhere near his usual graceful swim. Eren wondered why he even bothered coming in if he was so tired, especially since working out wasn’t seeming to calm him down any. With a start, he realized Levi was entering dangerous territory. In his frustrated swimming, he was crossing his hands across the midline of his body with every stroke, putting additional pressure on his shoulder’s rotator cuff that if he kept up like he was going, could injure him, or at worst, tear the cuff. Eren winced unconsciously. Yeah, that shit hurt like a mother and could fuck you up long term.

He leaned out of the guard chair, calling down to the man below him to no avail. “Levi!” he yelled a little louder, trying to avoid calling the attention of the rest of the patrons, but Levi swam past him again. Hoping it really wouldn’t come to this, Eren blew his whistle. It echoed against the concrete walls of the pool, stopping every swimmer in their tracks, including Levi. Eren waved him over, waiting for him to swim within talking range.

“Kid, I’m not in the mood to chat today. What do you want?” he barked out, grabbing onto the lap lane to keep himself afloat while waiting for an answer. Eren bristled at the age comment, but didn’t show it. Professionalism and all that bullshit.

“I noticed while you were swimming that you keep crossing too far across your body when your hands enter the water on your strokes and—”

“Look,” he cut Eren off, pushing his goggles onto his head with one hand to look him in the eye, “I didn’t ask for any pointers and I’d appreciate it if you’d just let me finish my laps.”

“Ok, I understand that,” Eren replied, but he really didn’t understand. This guy was starting to wear out his patience. “But if you’ll just hear me out, you’ll get what—”

“I don’t think you get it. Leave me alone.”

“Sir,” Eren ground out, “I am trying to do my job by preventing you from hurting yourself.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Levi glared up at Eren from the water. “I know how to fucking swim.”

“I never said you were stupid. I’m trying to help you!” Eren shouted back. He was _this_ close to losing his temper with the man, or just giving up entirely. If he wanted to fuck up his shoulder, fine, Eren would let him.

“And I said I don’t want your help!” The man clicked his tongue against his teeth sharply. “As if you even know what you’re talking about,” he said lowly.

“Oh, so now you think _I’m_ stupid?” Eren didn’t care if the man complained to the front desk or Hanji or whoever. He wasn’t going to let Levi sit there and talk to him like that, wasn’t going to grin and bear it just because customer service said he should. “You think I’m talking out of my ass? That I don’t know anything about swimming?”

“Just because you can swim doesn’t mean you’re any good at it, brat.”

“What, you want me to prove it? Fine. 50 meters, whatever stroke you want. Race me.” It was a bold—and frankly stupid—declaration, but Eren didn’t care right now. He was tired of being yelled at and talked to like a child, tired of Levi being an asshole, and tired in general. He wanted nothing more than to prove he was right, no matter what it took or how childish it made him seem.

Levi clicked his tongue again. “Forget it. I’m not racing a kid.” He put his goggles back on his face, about to resume his laps like he originally intended until Eren called out.

“I didn’t think you were a coward, old man.”

Levi whipped back around and Eren could feel the anger radiating off of him. Good. Serves him right for being such a self-righteous asshole.

“Fine,” the man said evenly, cold rage slowly burning behind his cool façade. “But when I kick your ass, don’t fucking talk to me again, got it?”

“Fine,” Eren spat back, “And when I win, you have to actually fucking listen to me.” He glanced up at the clock—only five minutes until Sasha would rotate him out, but he couldn’t wait that long, not right now. He double whistled to get her attention and she poked her head out of the office, dubious look on her face, but walked over when Eren waved her over.

“Yeah?” she questioned, eyes glancing back and forth between Levi and Eren. “Is everything ok?”

“It’s fine, Sasha. Can you rotate me now? I’ll take you down early if you get on stand right now.”

“Sure, I-I guess.” She looked down at the man in the pool again, “You sure everything’s fine?”

“Yeah, just gotta prove a point,” Eren said, already climbing down from the stand.

“Eren….” Sasha trailed off, her tone warning, but he was already jogging towards the guard office.

Eren soon trotted back with goggles and a towel. He dropped the towel on the bleachers behind the guard stand before yanking off his t-shirt and whistle and adding them to the pile. Down to just his swim trunks, he jumped into the lane next to Levi, childishly satisfied when some water splashed onto the other man. Although it was bracing, jumping in the pool sure did wake him up, sloughing off the sleepiness and replacing it with adrenaline. The cool water prickled at his skin as he rolled his shoulders and shook out his arms, quickly trying to loosen up.

“I figured we’d swim front crawl, since you like critiquing my form so much.”

Eren didn’t take the bait and refused to look at the man. “Sounds good to me,” he looked at Sasha above them. “Can you count us down?”

“I guess,” she said with a sigh, not exactly happy she had been roped into all of this. “Are you guys ready?” Levi readied himself against the wall. Eren tugged his goggles down onto his face, snapping the straps into place before following suite.

“Ready…Take your mark….HUP!”

Eren torpedoed himself into the water, staying submerged and dolphin kicking for as long as he could stand, using the momentum from his push off to carry him through the water. He popped out of the water with a gasp for breath, settling into the familiar practiced rhythm of front crawl. His hands sliced at the water, legs pumping away behind him, head turning methodically to suck in more air. His heartbeat and the thrashing of water pounded in his ears. He neared the end of the pool, tucking himself into a flip turn and pushing off against the wall. He risked a look to the side, trying to gauge where Levi was at: he was behind Eren, but only barely just. He was pretty damn fast, but Eren knew he was faster. Emerging above water again, he pushed himself even harder, going as hard as he could in the last length. Eren’s body was a machine, still well-oiled and able to keep up even after a lack of use, years of practice and training having drilled the movements into his muscles. With one last burst, he slammed into the wall, popping his head above water and watching as Levi charged in just a few seconds behind him.

Eren ripped his goggles off his face, leaning against the wall as his chest heaved, trying to catch his breath. He cast a sidelong glance at the man next to him who had taken a similar position against the wall. He gave Levi a few seconds to calm down before speaking.

“So,” he swallowed, “are you going to listen to me now?”

Levi glared back at him. “Fuck off,” but there wasn’t any bite to it.

Eren laughed in spite of himself. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” He turned to actually face the man. “What I was trying to tell you earlier was that you’re crossing too far over on your strokes. Like this.” He simulated crossing his right hand past the midline of the body and stretching over to the left, purposefully exaggerating the pose so Levi could see what he was describing. “Obviously, you weren’t doing it this bad, but you get the point. When you do that, it puts strain on your shoulder, like the rotator cuff inside of it. And if you keep doing it, eventually you’ll tear it, meaning lots of pain and surgery. Trust me, it sucks.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Yeah, normally you don’t have a problem with it. I just saw it today and wanted to stop you before it became a habit. You have really good technique actually. Way better than the rest of the patrons, but don’t tell them I said that.” That earned a chuckle out of Levi.

“Not good enough to beat you though,” he replied, smirking wryly.

Eren scratched at the back of his neck self-consciously, sinking down a little lower into the water. “To be fair, you were right on my ass the whole time. And I’ve gotta lot of experience.” He gestured at the giant sign at the other end of the pool. “Eren Jaeger, that’s me.”

The sign in question was the local high school’s records board, top boldly declaring TITAN SWIMMING AND DIVING. On the Boys’ side, the name Eren Jaeger could be seen tacked next to a handful of freestyle and butterfly events.

“Jesus, I knew you were young, but I didn’t think you were in high school, kid.”

“Oh god no.” Eren knew he sometimes looked a little on the younger side, but a high schooler? Come on. “I’m 23. Those are from years ago.”

“Thank god. I would’ve felt bad if I was being an asshole to an actual child.”

“I’m just glad you’re not still being an asshole,” he retorted with a snort.

Levi cast a sidelong glance at him. Eren could just barely make out his eyes through the lenses of his goggles. “Hey, I may be an asshole, but I know when I’m wrong.” Without another word, he climbed out of the pool, snatching up his bag and heading for the locker room. Eren watched his figure retreat until he was out of sight.

“Eren,” Sasha began, staring down at him with wide eyes, “Are you gonna tell me what the fuck just happened?” Before he could explain, she continued. “Did you try to fight a patron? Please tell me you didn’t try to fight a patron. And why did it have to be the hot one? Oh my god, Hanji is going to kill us if he complains.” She did have a point, but Eren wouldn’t have pegged Levi as the type to go and complain to people’s managers.

“Sasha, slow down. It’s not that bad. I kept trying to talk to him, but he was being rude and getting on my nerves so I may have called him a coward and challenged him to a race?” he ended with an awkward smile. Sasha wasn’t placated in the slightest. 

“We’re so fired if Hanji finds out.”

“Geez, no faith in me, huh? You saw us talking afterwards. He didn’t seem upset anymore, so I doubt he would complain to anyone about it. He even said he knew he was wrong. And on the very small chance he does complain, I will take the blame one hundred percent.” That information seemed to finally calm her down some.

“Ok, ok, you’re probably right. I just hope you didn’t scare him off.”

***

Eren didn’t think much of Sasha’s words until the next day. He’d been mentally preparing himself to face Levi again, playing out different scenarios the entire morning on his drive to work and as he opened the pool. Would Levi talk to him more now? Would he tell Eren about his weekend and complain about his job and tell him good morning when he came in? Would they joke and banter about what happened and how stupid the whole thing was? Or would it just go back to like before, with neither of them talking? With Eren constantly watching Levi and Levi ignoring him? Or would it be even worse, more awkward? All the waiting was making him overthink things. It would be fine. Just like he told Sasha, they seemed to have ended things on good terms yesterday. There was nothing to worry about.

Eren had prepared for lots of different scenarios to happen, but he hadn’t prepared for Levi to just not show up. His usual time came and went, and it was nearing the end of the shift without sign of him. He always stuck to the same schedule—showing up from 6:15-7:15 every day during the week but Friday—and he’d never strayed from it. Maybe he was just sick or had something else going on, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to be that. Did he actually scare Levi off? Or was Levi actually still upset at him?

Maybe Sasha was right. He acted rashly, letting his short temper get the best of him yet again, and in a pretty extreme way. He hadn’t just yelled at the man, he challenged him to a race too. God, who the hell does that? Remembering was giving him second-hand embarrassment and making him second-guess his decisions. Eren jiggled his leg, bouncing the guard tube up and down as he thought about it more. Honestly, he was a little angry at himself. He should’ve just left Levi alone like he originally asked. But then he still would’ve thought of Eren as the weird lifeguard who kept trying to give him tips. He should’ve just never said anything to the man and minded his own business. But if he was going to fuck up his shoulder, Eren couldn’t just sit by and do nothing to stop him. He sighed audibly, cupping his cheek in his hand as he stared out at the morning’s lap swimmers. Guess this was the best-case scenario, in a way. He just wished it hadn’t ended up with him possibly scaring away Levi forever.

The thought made him pause, sitting up a little straighter. Why did he care? Levi was just another patron. Eren liked all of his patrons, loved some of them even, but compared to them, Levi was a stranger. He knew next to nothing about the man. He’d only been coming in for a few weeks while most of the regulars had been here longer than Eren. So why did it matter if Levi stopped coming? He never talked to Eren, and the few times he did, he’d been snappy and rude. Even Levi admitted that he was an asshole. But the idea of him not showing up again left Eren feeling strangely disappointed.

The rest of the shift passed, and Levi never showed. As they walked out to their cars, Connie punched Eren’s arm playfully.

“Sasha told me about what happened yesterday. Can’t believe you raced a patron,” he laughed.

“Yeah, you know me. He was being an ass and I had to show him up,” Eren replied, laughing along weakly.

Connie reached his car, wrenching open the back door to toss his backpack in. “Well, you must have seriously kicked his ass since I didn’t see him today. You probably scared him off.”

“Yeah, I probably did.”

***

It turned out he hadn’t scared the man away, if Levi standing awkwardly in front of the guard office was anything to go by. He had caught Eren off guard, mostly because he had resigned himself in believing he had actually scared Levi off and didn’t expect him to show up at all. Eren’s head had been studiously shoved into his textbook when he heard a hesitant knock on the open door. Assuming it was a patron, he plastered his usual customer service smile onto his face only to have it wiped off and replaced with a look of confusion when he realized who was standing there. It was strange seeing Levi in actual clothes instead of his swimsuit, even if it was just joggers and a t-shirt. He must have come straight there instead of getting changed first like usual.

“I uh, what’s up?” Way to go Eren. Very professional. He wanted to smack himself.

Levi looked around the office before finally making eye contact. “Hey, I just wanted to uh…” he trailed off, breaking his gaze. He cleared his throat before starting over. “Look, I was an asshole. I’d been stressed about work and hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep, and dragging myself to the pool seemed like a good idea at the time, but I probably should have just kept my ass at home. I snapped at you when you were trying to be nice and kept goading you on until you knocked some sense into me. I’m sorry for being an asshole. Here.” He held out a small rectangle that Eren hadn’t realized he’d had in his hands. Eren grabbed it tentatively, realizing it was a Dunkin gift card.

“I would’ve given this to you yesterday, but I slept in for once in my life. Didn’t want you to deal with me being a cranky asshole again. I’ve seen you and that girl lifeguard get a lot of coffee from here, so I figured you at least didn’t hate it,” Levi continued, explaining his gift.

Eren was, quite frankly, a bit stunned. He hadn’t expected Levi to show up at all, much less apologetic or handing him a gift. “Oh, uh, thanks Levi, that’s really nice of you. But you really didn’t have to do this. I yelled at you and, well, you know. So, it’s not like I really deserve it.” He tried to hand the gift card back over, but Levi simply waved him off.

“Yeah, but you were right and none of that would’ve happened if I hadn’t been such a dick. Besides, I don’t like coffee, so I have no use for it.” Guess he really had no choice then.

“Well, thanks. I really appreciate it. I don’t think I’ve ever been rewarded for yelling at someone before,” Eren laughed out before amending, “Which I’m still sorry about. I know you said it’s fine, but I shouldn’t have lost my cool on you like that. It was definitely a rough morning for both of us.”

“I told you kid, it’s fine,” he replied nonchalantly, turning and walking back to the locker room abruptly.

Eren scrambled out of his chair and to the doorway, leaning out to call back “I’m 23!” Despite his façade of irritation, he couldn’t help but smile to himself—it was the most Levi had ever said to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooooh we got some dramaaaaaaa. Eren don't take no shit and Levi isn't as big of an asshole as he seems 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed ^^ Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coffee and realizations

Eren set his alarm to go off a little early the next day but was regretting it when it was time to actually get up. The thought of getting coffee was the only thing that made him eventually crawl out from under his blanket cocoon. He went through his morning routine, showering and brushing his teeth, trying his best to not disturb Armin as he banged about the bathroom. He gobbled down a bagel, grabbed his backpack and wallet, and set out for his car, intent on cashing in on the gift card Levi had given him.

He still thought it was strange that the man insisted on giving him an apology gift, but Eren had been a broke college student long enough to know you never turn down free coffee. He’d thought Levi was standoffish and unapproachable, but he was more considerate than he made himself appear. Of course, he was still pretty gruff and crude, but Eren kind of liked that about him—it at least made him more interesting to talk to than the rest of the regulars. The fact that he was pretty easy on the eyes certainly helped things a bit.

Eren pulled into the Dunkin drive through, waiting his turn in the long line and hoping that it wouldn’t make him late to work despite him leaving ten minutes early. Thankfully the line moved quickly, and he placed his usual order for a large iced coffee with cream and sugar. He dug around in his pocket for his wallet, pulling out the gift card and flipping it over, trying to look for the amount on it. He hadn’t paid any attention to it when Levi gave it to him, opting to just shove it in his wallet as soon as the man went to the locker room. Looking at it now, the gift card was unmarked, leaving him no way to know how much was actually on it. He shrugged to himself; probably just enough for a coffee or two.

He pulled up to the window, swapping the worker his gift card for his iced coffee, taking a sip and reveling in the taste of sweet, sweet caffeine. As the woman working the window handed him back his card, he asked, “Could you tell me how much is left on there?”

“Yeah, no problem, let me look really quick.” She tapped a button on the machine before glancing back at the screen. “You’ve got 46 dollars and 85 cents left on that card.”

It took a second for the info to process in Eren’s sleep-addled brain. “Wait, you said $46.85?”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright…thanks.” He pulled away slowly, dragging a gulp of his coffee, thinking. That was insane. Why the fuck would he give Eren $50? Levi must’ve gotten it wrong when he ordered it. Eren chewed on his straw, wondering if he should give it back to him. On one hand, Levi explicitly said he wouldn’t use it, and hell, that would be a lot of coffee Eren wouldn’t have to pay for. But on the other hand, it felt…wrong to just take his money when it seemed like a mistake. He pulled into the pool parking lot with a sigh—he couldn’t take it in good conscience, even if he wanted to.

Eren tried to get Connie to go on stand first, mostly so he’d be able to catch Levi as soon as he came in, but Connie was adamant that since he went first on Tuesday, it was Eren’s turn. Not really in the mood to explain everything to him, Eren went along with it, sulkily sitting on the guard stand and waiting for Levi to show up. A few minutes after opening, he arrived, right on time as usual. Calling his name, Eren waved him over. He could make out the confused look on Levi’s face even from across the pool. He walked over, duffle bag slung over one shoulder swinging slightly, and looked up with a quirked eyebrow, wordlessly waiting for Eren’s question.

“Hey! Good morning! So uh, I tried to use your gift card, but I think you made a mistake.” He reached inside of his swim trunks but came up empty. Shit. He left his wallet in the guard office. “I don’t have my wallet on me right now, but once I get rotated out, I can go put it with your stuff, or I can give it to you once you’re done with your laps. I just wanted to let you know.”

“What, did it not work?” Levi’s eyebrows furrowed, looking both confused and slightly agitated.

“No, no, it worked. I got coffee this morning with it—thanks again, by the way. It’s just that—”

“Then what’s the problem?” He retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. The action really accentuated his biceps and dammit, now was not the time to be ogling him.

Eren leaned out of his seat, hissing conspiratorially, “You gave me $50 on accident! I’m trying to be nice and give you your money back!”

Levi just snorted out his nose in what could pass—or at least by Eren’s standards—for a laugh. “That’s what you’re pissing yourself over? It wasn’t an accident, dumbass.” And with that, he walked away.

Eren tried calling after him, but Levi simply ignored him, setting his stuff down and diving in to begin his workout. All Eren did was make himself look like more of an idiot in front of him. He buried his face in his hands and sighed dramatically; guess that’s what he gets for trying to be a good person.

By the time Levi finished his laps, Eren was up on stand again. “So, I’m guessing I should just give up and accept that you’re not going to take the money back?”

Levi rolled his eyes, not pausing in his shoulder stretch. “I already told you I don’t like coffee.” He dropped the elbow he was holding. “If it’s bothering you that much, buy your coworkers some too. Don’t know how you kids can drink that stuff though.”

Huh. Eren hadn’t thought of that. He supposed he should at least get Sasha some for all the times she brought him coffee. But something else was weighing on his mind. “How old are you, Levi?” He’d been curious for a while, but the man’s comment reminded him.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a man his age,” he deadpanned, staring straight at Eren.

The brunet rolled his eyes, staring back at Levi expectantly and waiting for his answer.

Levi swam over to the edge, propping on elbow on the gutter to stare up at Eren. “How old do you think I am?”

“Uh, geez, I don’t know, that’s why I asked you. Obviously, you’re older than I am, so if we’re going just based on looks, I’d say older 20’s, like 28 or so. But by the way you keep referring to me as a kid, I’m gonna guess you’re older than I think you are and have been out of college for a while. So I’d say…probably about 30ish, but like the younger half of 30. I guess like 32? Maybe, 33?” There was no way he could’ve been any older than that—even the hottest of dilfs showed their age in one way or another, and Levi didn’t have a trace of grey hair or wrinkles so there was no way he could’ve been past 35. Sure, he showed up with dark circles every morning, but that wasn’t really a sign of aging.

Levi whistled lowly. “Wow, pretty close actually. I’m 34. Good to know I at least don’t look quite as old as I feel.”

The raven definitely didn’t look it, at least not compared to most of the people he knew in their thirties. “Ha, yeah. Most of the regulars your age have dad bods and kids to match, so I probably wouldn’t have guessed you’re the same age as them.” The other man grimaced in response which didn’t go unnoticed by Eren. “By that look, I’m guessing you don’t have any kids.”

“God no. Too much work and too messy.”

“You’ve got me there. They’re not all bad though, at least not all the time.” In fact, Eren really liked the kids that he coached. But it did help that they weren’t his own to take care of 24/7 and all of them were at least old enough to not throw temper tantrums out of nowhere.

“Whatever you say, Eren,” he replied, finally climbing out of the pool and ending the conversation.

Eren fiddled with the strap on the lifeguard tube in nervous excitement, watching Levi walk away towards his duffle bag. It was the first time he’d actually said his name.

***

He ended up taking Levi’s advice and got coffee and a bagel for Sasha on Monday. Since she didn’t have to go out of her way to get her own breakfast, she actually ended up being on time for their shift for once. With both of them there, they sped through their opening duties, having plenty of extra time to lounge around the office before having to let patrons in.

“So,” Sasha said, swallowing a mouthful of bagel, “what’s the occasion? Not that I don’t appreciate it, but you don’t usually bring me food. Which, thanks again for that, by the way.”

Eren slurped at his coffee, avoiding her eyes. He really should be better about reciprocating all the coffee she brought him. At least now he could, thanks to Levi. “You remember that new guy that I raced last week?” He waited until she nodded to continue. “Well, he actually ended up apologizing to me about the whole thing, which in and of itself was pretty nice. Most of the assholes here would never apologize, even when they know they’re in the wrong, so it felt nice that he owned up to it. Anyways, he also gave me a gift card. When I got coffee with it on Thursday, I realized that uh…he gave me $50.”

Sasha nearly choked in her rush to respond. “Fifty bucks? What the fuck Eren!”

“I don’t know! I tried to give it back, since I thought there must have been a mistake, but he refused. I have no idea why he would give me that much though.” He looked up to find his coworker shooting him a shit-eating grin that she tried to hide behind her coffee. Eren simply stared at her until it slid off her face in disbelief.

“Seriously Eren? Are you dense? He doesn’t talk to anyone else at the pool, or at least I’ve never really talked to him as much as I’ve seen you talking to him. Why else would he be so nice to you? He must like you.” The comment made him splutter.

“No way, Sash. Yeah, I’ve talked to him a couple of times, but I don’t know anything about him. I don’t even know if he’s gay! You’re reading too much into this.” He could feel his face burning. Sure, Levi was attractive. Really, really attractive. And Eren had enjoyed all of the conversations he’d had with him—besides the one where they yelled at each other—but they hadn’t really talked that much. They knew next to nothing about each other, so why would he like Eren? The man was just being nice.

“Okay, okay, I’m just messing with you. That was really sweet of him. I wish I had a hot guy to buy me coffee.” She chewed the remains of her bagel thoughtfully.

Eren pushed her rolly chair with his foot, propelling her away from him. “You have Connie, remember? Can’t you make him buy you breakfast?”

“Yeah, but he always complains about it. But guess what?”

“What?”

“Now _you_ can keep buying me breakfast.”

“Ha. You can get your own food from now on, but I’ll buy your coffee. I was planning on doing that anyways as a thanks for putting up with me last Monday.” He wasn’t going to let on that it was Levi’s idea and Sasha didn’t argue against the deal. Instead, they began discussing how their midterms went, lamenting test scores and late nights studying. Eventually they had to go open the pool, stretching their limbs with a sigh as they stood up. Sasha offered to go up first as thanks for coffee, so Eren stayed in the office as patrons filtered through the doors. He dicked around on his phone for most of the time—with the end of midterms, he didn’t have a lot of homework yet, thankfully. The only time he looked up was when he heard the doors open and shut, watching as Levi strolled in. The man raised a hand in a wave and continued on his way towards the lap lanes. Huh. Except for when he gave him the gift card, Levi usually didn’t pay any attention to Eren’s presence until he was in the water.

Eren rotated Sasha out and had been on stand for a few minutes when Levi slowed for his customary break. He expected the man to chug some water, catch his breath, and resume his laps, but today Levi surprised him by swimming over to the guard stand, hooking his elbows on the gutter to float next to Eren’s seat.

“So it looks like you took my suggestion and got Sarah some coffee.”

It took Eren a second to connect the dots, still taken aback that Levi was initiating a conversation with him. “You mean Sasha? Yeah, I figured I owe her with how much she buys it for me.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Close enough. At least I kind of know her name, unlike that bald kid.”

“That’s Connie. I work Tuesdays and Thursdays with him. Do you seriously not know anyone’s names?” Although he could be stoic and standoffish and frankly more than a bit intimidating, Eren assumed that the other guards had at least talked to Levi a handful of times.

The comment earned him a “Tch,” in return. “You make it sound like I make a habit of talking to college kids.” Which was a fair point. It’s not like Levi ever went out of his way to talk to anyone, at least not from what he’d seen. Eren had to practically force conversation out of him the first few times they talked.

“You’re talking to me right now,” Eren said with a crooked smile. Despite his projected disinterest and everything that had happened, Levi had kept talking to him for some reason. He wasn’t sure why, but he was glad of it. Levi didn’t bother to respond, opting to instead narrow his eyes and flip Eren off. The gesture just made him laugh.

***

His conversation with Sasha was still bothering him the next morning. Even Levi had told him he never really talked to the other guards, but some part of Eren’s brain nagged at him that there was no way it was true. He’d never said hi or good morning in passing? Never made sarcastic comments or complained to anyone? Sasha told him that she didn’t talk to Levi like Eren did, but what about Connie? He found himself bristling at the idea, which caught him off guard. Connie was straight—and dating Sasha no less—so why did the idea of Levi talking to him piss him off?

He scrubbed a hand over his face as he sat in the guard office. Levi had already come in, calling out a “Morning” to Eren when he strolled by the office, and was now swimming his laps like usual. He hadn’t seen him talk to Connie when he went over, much less even look at his coworker. He knew he was being ridiculous, but the feeling still clung to the back of his mind. Was he jealous?

Eren ran his hands through his hair, dislodging most of it from the half bun he’d tied on the back of his head. This was stupid. He was stupid. He’d just told Sasha that he barely knew anything about Levi, which was still true. He couldn’t possibly try to lay claim over someone that probably wouldn’t even consider him a friend, couldn’t be jealous about someone he barely knew, but he wanted to know more. He liked talking to Levi, and liked looking at Levi—liked looking at him _a lot_. He sat up straighter in his chair, realization dawning on him along with a sense of dread. Did he like Levi? He slammed his head down on the table in front of him, groaning in both pain and frustration.

When he went to rotate Connie, Eren snagged his arm before his coworker had the chance to escape to the guard office. He glanced furtively at the lap swimmers, making sure no one was paying attention, while Connie raised an eyebrow at him, silently questioning what was up. He released Connie’s arm once he was satisfied no one was watching. “Hey, so uh, do you ever talk to Levi? Like, does he ever try to talk to you?”

“Who? Do you mean the new guy?” Connie glanced down at Levi in lane one and back to Eren, making sure he had the right person in mind. Although Levi had been coming continuously for the past couple of weeks, he was still the newest regular to the pool. At Eren’s nod, Connie continued. “Huh, so his name’s Levi? But nah, he just gets in and goes about his business, doesn’t ever try to talk to me. I don’t really talk to regulars anyways, much less him. Why?”

“Oh, uh, I was just curious. Sash mentioned she’d never really talked to him before, so I was wondering if you had.” It was mostly true, at least. He just hoped his coworker would accept the flimsy excuse and not question it any further.

“Nope,” Connie popped the p for emphasis. “Dude’s kinda scary anyways. I’m kind of surprised you talk to him.”

Eren tried to stutter out a defense of Levi but Connie was already retreating to his break. With nothing left to do but stare at a meager number of swimmers, Eren’s mind had plenty of time to wander again. So, he was the only one Levi talked to after all. But just like he told Sasha, they didn’t really talk much, just a handful of conversations here and there. Sasha’s words came back to him: _He must like you._ Eren’s mind stubbornly denied it. Maybe Levi did like him, but not like that. He was being friendly, conversational. There was no way. He probably wasn’t even gay, and on the slight off chance he was, he probably wasn’t single, and on the even smaller chance that he was single, why would he be interested in him, a hot-headed disaster 6th year undergrad? He ran a hand through his hair again, knocking his bun even more out of the ponytail now barely keeping it together. God this was stressing him out. _He_ was stressing himself out, and over stupid reasons too. The chances of Levi actually liking him were so small they were laughable, so in reality, he had nothing to worry about. It wasn’t like Eren really liked Levi either—he didn’t know him so he couldn’t, not really. He liked his appearance, liked talking to him, but he couldn’t like someone he didn’t actually know.

Maybe he was just in denial, but it at least got his mind to stop going into a self-deprecation pit. He liked Levi as an interesting person, nothing more, nothing less. He just wanted to befriend him, that was all. He looked forward to their conversations simply because they made the time go by faster and insured Eren wasn’t sitting on stand bored out of his mind the entire time. His eyes wandered to the man, noticing that Levi was about to stop for another break again.

Levi grabbed his water bottle and swam up to the gutter, casting his gaze up at Eren. “Your hair’s fucked up.”

The man’s bluntness never failed to catch him off-guard. “Yeah, I was messing with it earlier, didn’t realize it was falling out this bad though.” He reached a hand up self-consciously to undo the extremely messy bun. After pulling out the ponytail, he raked his hands through the strands in an attempt to untangle it. Eren stuck the ponytail in his mouth, holding on to it as he prepared to gather his hair back into the bun it was in before, but Levi called out before he could begin fixing it.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you with your hair down.”

Eren pulled the hair tie from his mouth to respond. “Yeah, it’s pretty hot in here, so I usually pull it back so it’s not on my neck. Otherwise it makes me sweaty and gross.” He resumed the process of wrangling his hair back into the bun, not noticing Levi’s eyes were still on him as he took a long drink from his bottle.

“It suits you.” Before Eren could respond, Levi had already dived back under the water and started his laps again.

***

Levi seemed to stop and chat more and more often in the following days. At first, he would talk to Eren just once or twice if Eren was lucky, drifting closer to the guard stand on his breaks. Eren mostly initiated the conversations but he didn’t mind it since Levi would always respond. He knew enough about the man to know that he wouldn’t be talking to Eren if he didn’t want to. Soon Levi was swimming towards the guard stand every time he stopped for a break and was starting more conversations, usually complaining about his day or shooting the shit. Eren was getting to know the man—slowly, but steadily.

Eren was currently stuck on stand again, bored as usual and watching the regulars swim their laps. Today Rico was in, along with Shadis, Ilse, and of course Levi. Watching them all together, it was easy to see how much better of a swimmer Levi was. Rico was fast and precise, but nowhere near as quick as Levi. Shadis was diligent, but his form was too rigid and his movements too stuttered. Ilse had good form but was a slow swimmer compared to the others. As he watched Levi, he realized there was no way he could’ve been self-taught. Although he slipped sometimes, his form was too clean. Eren watched as Levi finished up his set, swimming back leisurely to begin his cool down stretches.

“Hey Levi,” he called once the man was in range. “How’d you get so good at swimming?”

Abandoning the stretches, Levi swam closer, opting to hang on the lap lanes instead of the gutter this time. “My uncle threw me in a pool and told me to figure out.” Eren laughed at the joke but Levi stayed silent until Eren realized his mistake, clearing his throat awkwardly.

“Oh, that uh, that’s pretty shitty.”

“You don’t say,” he deadpanned. “Lifeguard had to save my ass because I almost drowned, but I eventually got the hang of it. It wasn’t good, but it was passable. Then a friend of mine dragged me onto the swim team with him in high school. It kept me out of trouble, and I got better at it over time. Didn’t care about it enough to try and swim in college, so I stopped. I didn’t pick it up again until after grad school. I always complained about how much I hated swimming when I was younger, but here I am.”

“You went to grad school? For what? Should I be calling you Dr. Levi instead?” Now that he thought about it, he’d never asked what Levi did for a living, and the man had never brought up his job, preferring to ambiguously refer to it as work every time he talked about it.

That made Levi snort. “No, it was law school. I’m a lawyer.”

“Damn. You’re like _smart_ smart. Guess that’s how you can afford to finance my coffee addiction.” Levi kicked a foot out, spraying water in Eren’s direction but barely missing, making Eren laugh.

“Just means I know how dependent you brats are on it. Why do you think I can’t stand the stuff anymore? I guzzled that shit all through law school.” It wasn’t hard to picture the man hunched over a stack of books in a library, chugging coffee from a thermos in an attempt to keep himself awake a little longer, cramming for the BAR.

“That’s fair. What made you want to be a lawyer in the first place? Like, it makes sense, but that’s not what I would’ve pegged you as.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean, brat?” He tugged off his cap and goggles, slicking his now freed hair back from his face, continuing again before Eren could begin to explain himself. “I fucked around a lot as a kid and got in trouble with the law a lot. Nothing too serious, but some of my friends weren’t as lucky. The justice system fucked them over and it made me angry enough to want to do something about it. Plus my bastard uncle didn’t think I could actually do it, so it was half out of spite.”

“That sounds more like you,” Eren replied with a smirk, making Levi scowl. He looked like he was about to finally climb out of the pool—after all, they had talked for quite a while today, way longer than usual—but he surprised Eren by asking him a question instead.

“So what about you? What are you studying?”

“Oh uh, Sports Physiology and Sports & Rec Management.” His answer put a look of confusion on Levi’s face.

“You’re not a grad student?” Eren rubbed a hand across the back of his neck in embarrassment. He was hoping to avoid explaining his entire life sob story to the man, giving him the basic rundown and leaving it at that, but of course, no such luck.

“No, still in undergrad. I changed my major halfway through and decided I wanted to double major, so it took me a lot longer to get all the classes I needed done. I’ll finally be done after this year though, thankfully.” He provided Levi more information, but left out the less important details. He really didn’t need to dump everything on the man.

“Hey, nothing wrong with going at your own pace.” He swam over to the ladder after glancing at the clock, completely abandoning any sort of cool down, and climbed out. “I better head out. See you later, Eren.”

“Thanks Levi. See you tomorrow.” He watched the man grab his stuff and make his way to the locker room with a smile, ears and cheeks slightly reddened. Levi was definitely nicer than he let on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uwu what's this? Jealousy? Flirting? 
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who's read and left a kudo. It means a lot to me that you're reading and enjoying this thing ^^
> 
> On another note, if you or anyone you know are looking for a beta reader, I'd be more than open! Job hunting has been going pretty slow and I want to keep my editing skills up to par, so I'd love the practice if you want it!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coaching and encouragement

A week later and Levi was spearheading more and more conversations, often asking Eren questions about his major and how classes were going. Eren would counter by asking Levi about his work and cases, as much as he could legally divulge. Levi’s breaks lasted longer and longer, and his cooldown became almost non-existent, or at least a much more condensed version of what it first was. The man once tried to forgo his cooldown altogether and Eren berated him for ten minutes about the importance of properly relaxing and stretching muscles after working out. Since then, Levi had been sure to do his stretches properly while still talking to Eren. A handful of times they became so distracted talking after Levi finished his laps that he would end up having to nearly rush out to avoid being late for work.

Today was one such day. Eren was in the middle of recounting a drunken night out with his friends when Levi cut him off.

“Fucking shit.” He glanced up at Eren, already swimming over towards the ladder as he spoke again. “Sorry to cut you off brat, but I’m gonna be late again if I don’t leave right now.”

Eren twisted in the guard chair, glancing at the clock behind him to confirm that yep, it was 15 minutes after the time Levi usually left.

“Maybe you should buy a watch or set an alarm if you’re planning on getting so distracted all the time.” He said as Levi passed behind the chair to grab his things. He held up his middle finger, snatching up his duffle bag and turning back around to head towards the locker room. Eren assumed that being flipped off was the only response he would receive for his quip, so when Levi muttered under his breath as he passed back by the chair, it caught him even more off guard.

“Your fault, brat. Stop being so distracting.” By the time the words really registered, Levi was long gone, which was probably for the best as Eren’s face was twenty shades of red.

***

The words stuck in his head for the rest of his day. He spent his lecture tapping a pencil against his notebook and barely paying attention to his professor, rethinking Levi’s comment. He thought about what it could mean as he walked home from campus. He came to a conclusion, denied it, then rethought about it while making himself dinner. Was Levi flirting with him?

The only thing that got him to finally stop thinking about Levi was—ironically—arriving back at the pool later that evening. As he pushed his way through the double doors, a chorus of “Coach Eren” greeted him, a couple kids running up to demand his attention before the practice started. He said hello to each of them, plopping his backpack down on the bleachers and pulling out his clipboard. Eren coached the local youth swim team every Thursday night. He’d even been on the same team when he was younger: it was where he first got his start and where he swam for years until he could join his middle school’s team.

He took attendance before leading the kids in their warm-up stretches, reprimanding the ones that tried to speed through the stretches in a bid to get into the water faster. Once everyone was finished, they all rushed to the water, splitting themselves into groups of three and four in each lane. Eren led them through various drills, whistling to get the kids’ attention for group critiques and working one-on-one with ones that needed a little more direct help. This was only his second full year of coaching, and it surprised him with how much he enjoyed working with kids. He was hesitant to take the position at first—he thought he was too hot-headed to deal with annoying kids; didn’t think he’d have the patience—but he knew he needed the coaching experience while he could get it and ended up loving everyone on the team. All of the kids were incredibly hard working, and honestly, he saw a lot of himself in most of them.

Eren was supervising a breaststroke drill when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, assuming it was a parent with some sort of question, only to have the words knocked out of him, eyes widening in shock. Levi stood before him in a tailored suit, hands shoved in his pockets, looking out of place fully clothed at a pool. Eren thought it was weird the one time he saw Levi in sweats—too used to seeing the man in his swimsuit—but this, wow, he could get used to seeing him like this.

“Levi, uh, hey? What’re you doing here?” Of course, just when he’d finally gotten the man out of his head, here he was.

“I could ask you the same thing. I didn’t know you coached, although I should’ve guessed based on how much you critique my swimming.”

Eren toyed with his half-pony, suddenly unsure of what to do with his hands. “Ha, yeah, it’s the local swim team. I only do it one night a week though. There’s another coach that does it Tuesday nights. So, I’m pretty surprised to see you here.”

“Yeah, you looked like you were about to shit yourself when you realized it was me,” Levi replied, slipping one hand out of his pocket to card it through his hair. Eren watched the action with interest, noticing the way that the suit clung to Levi’s defined arm muscles as he moved. Somehow the man managed to look hotter wearing clothes than he did in his swimsuit.

“It’s not a bad thing!” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “You just caught me off guard. I thought you were a parent. Plus I only ever see you in jammers, so it’s different seeing you in clothes.”

Levi just looked amused at all of Eren’s rambling. “Relax kid. I’m just teasing you. I left something here this morning, so I came here straight after work, which is the only reason I’m still in this getup.”

“Oh, gotcha. If you need the lost and found, you can just go ask Historia in the guard office. She’ll show you where it’s at.”

“Thanks.” He glanced over at the lap lanes, where a handful of the swim team had finished their set and were now watching the two men with interest. “Looks like I’m hogging their coach, so I’ll let you get back to it then. I’ll see you around, Eren.”

“Yeah, see you Levi.” Eren turned back to his kids, all of whom were pretending to look anywhere but at their coach. “Alright guys, back to work.”

Once he had the team swimming their next set, he turned back to see if Levi had found what he was looking for. Instead, he saw him engaged in conversation with Hanji. From their body language, it seemed as if the two knew each other, Hanji animatedly talking Levi’s ear off the way she did only with employees or people she knew. The woman could be surprisingly professional when it came to the general public but became a completely different person around those she actually liked. As much as he wanted to keep watching—and wanted even more to hear what they were discussing—Eren turned his focus back to the team. If he kept getting distracted, the parents would no doubt start to complain, and this was a job he actually wanted to keep. He kept his questions to himself, knowing that he’d be able to ask Hanji about it the next morning when they worked together.

***

Hanji actually beat him to the punch. They were scrubbing the pool deck—well, Eren was scrubbing, Hanji was spraying things down with the hose—when she sprung the question on him.

“So Eren, I didn’t know you knew Levi. How’d you meet him?”

He stopped scrubbing, leaning against the brush handle. “Uh, here? He swims laps in the morning, pretty much every morning but this shift. He’s essentially a regular now, since he’s been coming for a while.”

“That short bastard!” Hanji exclaimed, tugging harshly at the hose to undo a kink in the line. “I knew he was avoiding me! I bribed Moblit into telling me when Levi registered for a membership at the front desk, so I knew he was coming here—even if he thinks I don’t know. But I didn’t know he was coming so often! I’ll just have to come in earlier now to go bug him.” She sprayed at the concrete, seemingly now deep in concentration.

Eren resumed scrubbing, sloshing soapy water from the mop bucket onto the deck, trying to seem nonchalant. “So how do you know Levi?”

“Shorty and I go way back. I was the manager for the boys swim team that Levi was on in high school, so I got to terrorize him at practice and eventually forced him into being my friend. We ended up going to college together too. Why?”

“I saw you guys talking last night while I was coaching. I was just curious.”

“Oh? You’re curious about Levi?”

Eren suddenly found himself preoccupied scrubbing furiously at a random patch of the pool deck, pretending there was a stubborn stain there and trying to avoid Hanji’s question, the back of his neck betraying him as it turned bright red. His boss simply laughed at his obvious discomfort.

“I’m just teasing you, Eren. You don’t have to tell me anything. But if you have any questions about Levi, you can ask me. I know all of that asshole’s dirty little secrets. He’s grumpy and rude, but he’s not a bad guy, then again, I’m sure you already knew that.”

He still wouldn’t look at Hanji, but Eren’s scrubbing intensity calmed down a bit. “Thanks Hanji.”

“Ha, don’t thank me for anything. I’m mostly just surprised he actually talks to you.” That finally got Eren to turn back around. Why did everyone keep saying that?

“Really? Connie and Sasha said the same thing. I mean, he’s not the chattiest person in the world, but he starts a lot of conversations with me.”

The comment made her grin maniacally. “Interesting,” Hanji drawled, “Very, very interesting.” Before Eren could ask what, _exactly,_ she meant by that, she was already continuing. “Looks like we better finish this up. We gotta open in 5 minutes.”

Eren knew Hanji knew more than she was letting on, but as to what that was, he couldn’t really guess. They finished scrubbing the deck in record time and locked everything back into the cleaning closet, going to let patrons in afterwards. Hanji offered to go up first and Eren didn’t argue. He sat in the guard office, watching her on stand. His boss said he could ask her anything about Levi, but what was he supposed to ask? He didn’t even know what he wanted to know, and anything he could learn about Levi, he’d prefer to hear it from the man himself. It felt…weird to learn something about him that he didn’t divulge himself.

***

He posed his conundrum to his roommate Saturday night. He and Armin had been friends for almost as long as they could remember and had originally gone into undergrad together. Almost everyone else in their friend group had already graduated minus Eren, and Armin had decided to stay at the same University for med school. Eren would have preferred rooming Armin out of any of their friends anyways, so it was pretty convenient that they were both still in school at the same time. He hadn’t meant to tell Armin about what happened, but Eren was 5 beers in and nursing his 6th so everything just seemed to flow out of him without meaning to.

“Ok, slow down. So your boss said you could talk to her about a guy that you both know? How is this so terrible again?”

Eren raised the elbow that was covering his face to peer up at Armin from his place on the floor. In his rambling, he had managed to slip off the couch and wedge himself between it and the coffee table and hadn’t bothered to get back up. “I don’t get it. Why would she tell me that? I don’t have any questions! I don’t even know what to ask.”

“Then don’t ask.”

Eren simply groaned in response. Although Armin wasn’t wrong, that also wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “But I want to! There’s a lot I want to know, but it’s weird asking Hanji.”

“Will you get up off the floor so I can actually talk to you?” Armin sighed, poking Eren in the side with his foot, making him squirm at the prodding. The blond was on their living room couch sipping on his own glass of wine.

“Nah, ‘s comfy.” Besides, Eren knew if he got up off the floor, he wouldn’t be able to avoid Armin’s interrogating. Although he wasn’t forceful, Armin always had a way of getting Eren to talk—something about those analytical blue eyes got to him and made him spill his guts whether he wanted to or not.

“So who’s the guy?” That at least got Eren to sit up.

“What guy? There’s no guy.” Fuck, so he’d already slipped up. He didn’t really want to tell Armin about Levi, not for any particular reason, he just was a stubborn bastard and preferred to try and solve his problems himself, but if anyone would be able to provide him some answers about the enigmatic man, Eren was sure it would be Armin.

His roommate rolled his eyes. “The one you were just talking about, Eren. The one your boss said you could ask her about. Ring any bells?”

He flopped back down on the floor, taking a long swig of his beer to avoid conversation momentarily, collecting his thoughts. It’d probably be best to get Armin’s opinion on the situation. “His name is Levi. He started coming to the pool a while ago and is a regular now. Do you remember that day I came home wet and told you that I got into a fight with a patron?”

“Oh my god Eren, don’t tell me—”

“Yeah, that’s him. He was kind of an asshole at first, but it was really just a big misunderstanding. And he’s actually really nice! He bought me a Dunkin gift card to apologize and—”

“So that’s why you kept bringing me coffee? Damn, tell him thanks.” Armin was currently in his second year of med school and studying his ass off constantly, so any caffeine he could get was always appreciated.

“Well yeah, you definitely needed it as much as I did. But anyways, he gave me way too much, which is mostly why I’ve also been buying it for you. I tried to give him his money back, but he refused. We’ve been talking like almost every day since then. He’s got a resting bitch face and seems really unapproachable, but he’s easy to talk to and surprisingly funny, even if he is pretty crude sometimes.”

“So your real problem is that you like this guy.”

Eren spluttered, shooting upright and clambering onto the couch, nearly spilling the beer he still clutched in his hand. “I do not! Yeah, I like talking to him, and he’s really cool, and a good swimmer. And he’s also pretty good looking, and he’s ripped, like absolutely jacked Arm, and he—” He stopped talking when he saw the skeptical look Armin was shooting him. “Okay, maybe I like him. Why’d you have to be so smart, huh?” Eren replied, shoving at his roommate without any real malice.

“You’re just an idiot.” Armin shoved him back.

“Fuck off,” he laughed, collapsing backwards onto the cushions and staring up at the ceiling. “I might like him. Just a little bit. I like talking to him and want to get to know him more. Everyone even says that he doesn’t talk to just anyone, so that, I don’t know, gives me some hope that maybe it’s not just one sided. But I don’t know if he’s single, or hell, if he even likes guys. I don’t know how to ask him without it being awkward or weird, and that’s the last thing I want to happen. And even if he is gay, I don’t want to be a creep or pressure him into anything, but I also don’t want to be stuck in something one-sided because that would pretty much suck ass.”

“Ok, so hypothetically you find a way to not awkwardly ask him if he’s gay. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“He’d turn out to be super homophobic and try to fight me. But I honestly can’t see that _actually_ happening, at least not with Levi. So I guess the worst would be he gets creeped out and stops talking to me, or stops coming at all.”

“Ok, and would that really be the worst thing in the world?”

“Well Mr. Future Doctor Arlert, neither us would be dead, so no, but I would hate it.”

“Why don’t you ask your boss? You were just complaining about how you didn’t know what to ask her.”

Eren picked at a fuzzy on the cushion absentmindedly. “I mean, I could, but it feels like I’d be invading his privacy and Levi seems like a pretty private person. I don’t think he’d appreciate it if he found out. On one hand, I’d get an answer without any immediate repercussions, but on the other, I don’t think it’s a good idea long-term.”

“Oh, so we’re thinking long-term now, are we?” Armin arched an eyebrow. Eren reached a hand behind him, pulled out a throw pillow, and, doing what the name implies, threw it at his roommate. Armin blocked it with a forearm, wine glass sloshing precariously in his hand. “Ok, ok, I surrender. Spare my pinot.”

“You know what I meant, you dick.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t know what to tell you though. You can either ask him yourself, ask your boss, or don’t ask at all and never know.”

“God, I don’t know. You’re supposed to have all the answers, smarty pants, not me. I need another beer.” He finished the last dregs of his can then reached over to grab another off the coffee table. Eren cracked it open, the sound echoing around the room, and took a sip. “I’ll probably just wait and not do anything yet like a coward.”

Armin punched him lightly on the arm. “Hey, that doesn’t sound like the Jaeger I know. I’m sure you’ll figure something out. They don’t teach you how to flirt in med school, so sorry I’m not much help.”

“Armin, you are a genius,” he exclaimed, bolting out of his slouch. “I’ll flirt with him and see how he reacts. If he takes it well, I’ll have an answer. If he freaks, I’ll just say I was joking and then cry as all my hopes and dreams shrivel to dust, and accept that I will die alone.”

“Don’t be dramatic. You’ll be fine, Eren.”

***

Eren was, in fact, not fine. He’d resolutely decided to flirt with Levi, but sitting on stand and staring down into the man’s face the following Monday, any confidence he had faltered. Of course he knew _how_ to flirt—had no problem picking up guys at bars for one-night stands and had even had a few boyfriends, although nothing long-term—Eren Jaeger was no stranger to laying on the charm. But when it came to Levi, all the words he wanted to say died in his throat as soon as he looked in those silvery eyes.

“C’mon brat, out with it. You look like you want to say something.” Shit, so Levi had noticed.

“Oh uh, I was just thinking about you.” Shit, shit, shit, that couldn’t have come out any worse. “And uh, how you were here on Thursday. It was weird seeing you.”

Levi snorted. “Yeah, I wasn’t planning on stopping in, but I realized I left my swimsuit here. I wanted to grab it so I’d be able to wash it for today.”

“Do you not have more than one?” Now that Eren was thinking about it, Levi always showed up in the same pair of black jammers. He supposed they could just be multiple pairs of the exact same color, but he thought that was boring—he owned probably about 15 or so in different colors and patterns and liked having different options.

“I have a few, but that pair’s my favorite. I wanted to make sure it didn’t get permanently lost, so sue me.”

“I think you’d win that lawsuit, Mr. Lawyer. You should get some more jammers though. Only wearing black all the time is lame.” He looked good in all black, but he thought it’d be nice to have Levi switch it up and wear a color for once

“Fuck off, you’re lame,” he said, no real malice in his voice. “I’m guessing you’re the type to wear some obnoxiously patterned speedo.”

“Ha, yeah, I’ve got a couple that are a little crazy. One’s got dinosaurs on it. But most are just solid colored or some sort of abstract print.”

“Jesus, sounds like you’ve got a shit ton. But guess that makes sense since you swim so much.”

Eren stiffened subtly in his chair. He’d been dancing around discussing it for a while, only kind of hinting that he used to swim without ever explaining anything. It wasn’t that he was really hiding what happened, it was just a bit of a sensitive subject, even if it had been two years.

“Well, I guess. I don’t really swim all that much anymore.” He swam laps after work sometimes—he still enjoyed swimming, but he couldn’t do it to the extent that he used to and nowhere near as often. Now he mostly worked out in the gym at the campus rec center.

“The fuck are you talking about? You wouldn’t be able to coach those kids if you weren’t a swimmer yourself. You kicked my ass when we raced, and you wouldn’t be able to do that if you ‘didn’t swim all that much.’”

“Yeah, I used to be a swimmer, but I stopped, so I don’t really think of myself as much of one anymore,” he replied with a shrug, hoping to steer the conversation somewhere, anywhere else than where he was afraid it was headed, but Levi wasn’t going to let it go.

Levi swung an arm out of the water to gesture at the swimming records board hanging at the other end of the pool. “Not much of a swimmer? What about all those, huh? Did you just fucking give up on that? Why the fuck would you do that?”

“You think I quit?” He laughed hollowly, the sound holding no humor. “Jesus Christ, you say that like I wanted to stop. I swam for _years,_ Levi, almost all of my life. I went to college just so I could swim! Swimming was all I fucking wanted to do. You know why I got so angry at you that day? Why I yelled at you about how you were swimming?” He stared down at the man below, emerald eyes blazing into resolute silver. When an answer never came, he continued.

“I kept telling you not to swim like that because doing that will fuck up your shoulder just like I did mine. I had to take a gap semester junior year to have surgery and recover. I came back the next semester, but I wasn’t the same—I couldn’t keep up at practice and my times got worse and worse. I got cut from the University team and dropped out of school. I didn’t fucking give up.”

Eren looked away, gritting his teeth and taking a deep breath through his nose, trying to calm himself. He knew Levi didn’t mean it like that, knew the man was just curious, but it didn’t mean it didn’t still upset him to be accused of quitting. It had killed him inside when he realized he’d never be able to swim competitively again, killed him so much that he dropped out of school. He’d dedicated his life to swimming, was all he ever really wanted to do, but with that option snatched away from him, he was adrift, left without a purpose. It’d taken him through that summer—and Hanji’s help—to realize he wanted to pursue coaching and re-enroll in college. It’d taken him even longer to really come to terms with everything that happened, and although it no longer made him feel like a failure, it still hurt to talk about sometimes, especially when he wasn’t really ready to discuss it with someone like Levi. Levi the lawyer who probably had his entire life together and always knew that he wanted to be lawyer. God, what was he doing trying to flirt with a man like that?

“Eren,” Levi began before trailing off, looking slightly uncertain, which was a first. “I’m sorry,” he started again. “I shouldn’t have pressed you. I should’ve respected your privacy and your decisions. Sorry for being a massive dickwad.”

The comment made Eren snort, easing some of the tension. “It’s fine. It just kind of sucks being reminded of it sometimes. But it happened a while ago, and I’ve figured my life out since then, so it all worked out at least.”

“Hey, no one ever has their life figured out. It took me three years before I decided to go to law school. You think I always wanted to be a lawyer? I was just tired of working shitty office jobs and needed a change.” The new information came as a shock.

“Really? You always seem to have your life so put together.” It was hard to picture the man as confused and lost as Eren had been.

“God no, kid, I’m a fucking shitshow. So is everyone out of college. We just pretend we know what we’re doing.”

A small smile blossomed on Eren’s face. Levi was trying to reassure him, in his own weird way, and it was surprisingly comforting. “Thanks Levi. If anything, it just made me realize how much I like coaching. After I dropped out, I started teaching swim lessons here. I wanted more hours, so Hanji got me into lifeguarding—she was actually the one that suggest coaching to me as an option. I might not be able to compete anymore, but at least I don’t have to give up on swimming completely.”

“Good. You’re too talented to just give up on that.” Before he could think of a response, Levi had already hauled himself out of the pool, stopping momentarily at the bottom of guard stand. “See you around, Eren.” And with that, he was gone.

Eren buried his face in his hands. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well chapter 133 left me a wreck. I wish I could offer some fluff in these trying times, but uhhhhh have some minor angst and disaster gay Eren instead lmao 
> 
> Thank you to everyone that commented last chapter!! :') Your comments really motivate me and I appreciate them a lot!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Distractions and Discussions

Eren didn’t even bother trying to flirt with Levi on Tuesday. He felt bad about emotionally unloading onto the man the day before and was a little embarrassed about revealing his entire tragic backstory to him when he probably didn’t care. Levi complimenting him as he left didn’t help things either. He always seemed to know just want to say to throw Eren for a loop and then would leave just as quick as he said anything. It was…confusing. Most of the comments were a little uncharacteristic of Levi—calling him talented and distracting and saying his hair was nice—considering he peppered swears and complaints into almost every sentence he said. He didn’t want to read too much into it and get his hopes up, but it was hard not to hope that maybe the man could like Eren back.

He didn’t want to attempt to flirt with him, so he just didn’t initiate conversation at all. By the time Levi had finished up his laps and left, Eren realized they hadn’t talked at all the entire morning, save saying good morning and goodbye. Was he avoiding him again? He couldn’t really blame Levi—Eren had a perpetual frown etched into his forehead all morning from worrying over everything he’d word-vomited onto the man yesterday. Mikasa always joked that he didn’t have resting bitch face, but a resting angry face. Even Connie had been subtly avoiding him. He sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, trying to unclench the muscles there to no avail.

When Levi showed up on Wednesday, he said a curt “Morning” to Eren, hopped in the pool, and began his laps. Eren scrutinized him as he swam, debating on whether or not to say something to him today. On one hand, he missed talking to Levi and didn’t want to give up on their daily conversations. On the other, he didn’t want to be annoying or pushy if Levi wanted to be left alone. But on the other, other hand, it was never like him to take no for an answer.

Levi finally stopped for his first break, chugging his water bottle and surreptitiously glancing up at Eren. He caught the glance out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look at the man, Levi had turned his head and resumed his laps again. The same thing happened when he stopped again for a break, and again, and again. Eren’s patience had worn through when Levi stopped for his cool down.

Gripping the strap of the lifeguarding tube in his fist, he leaned over, waiting until Levi made eye contact with him before speaking. “Are you avoiding me?”

Levi glanced away, shrugging. “Well, you seemed pretty upset on Monday, so I figured I’d give you some space. Me opening my shitty mouth is what upset you in the first place.”

He sighed a breath out of his nose, half laugh and half snort. So that’s why he’d been giving Eren the cold shoulder. “Levi, I’m not mad at you. Yeah it kind of sucks to talk about sometimes, but I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t want to.”

“The scowl you’ve been wearing since yesterday says otherwise.” He couldn’t disagree with the man—his face had been perpetually angry looking, despite his best efforts to relax.

“That’s because I was trying to figure out why you were avoiding me,” he said, throwing his hands up. God, Levi was impossible to read sometimes. The more he learned about the man, the less he seemed to know.

“Some thanks I get for caring about your feelings,” he replied sarcastically.

“You can thank me by talking to me again, you dick.”

Levi smirked, relaxing against the bulkhead behind him. “I don’t know, you sound pretty angry. Maybe I should give you some space.”

“Levi, I swear to god I will come down there and drown you myself.” That comment earned him a chuckle.

“Ok, ok, relax brat. I don’t think your boss would appreciate you drowning the customers.”

“What, Hanji? She threatens to drown Nick all the time, so I don’t think she’d care. If anything, with the amount of lives we save, I think we should be allowed to drown at least one person,” Eren said with a laugh. The discussion of Hanji reminded him of the last time he talked to her. “How come you didn’t mention you knew her? She said you guys went to school together.”

Levi slunk down a little lower into the water, hunching his shoulders. “I was hoping to avoid her as long as possible. I figured if I mentioned her, you’d tell her about it, and then I’d have to deal with shitty glasses interrupting my laps every morning. There’s a reason I don’t come in on Fridays.”

“Wait, that’s really why?” The pieces were falling into place—Eren had always wondered why Levi came every day of the week but Friday, but he never would’ve thought it was because of his boss. “I know Hanji can be a little much sometimes, but I didn’t think she was that bad.”

Levi barked out a laugh. “Wait until you’ve known her as long as I have. She’s a good friend, I just like peace during my morning workouts and this early is a little _too_ early to handle Hanji. Don’t tell her I said that though or she’ll never let me live it down that I actually care about her.”

“My lips are sealed,” he said, pantomiming zipping his lips shut and tossing out the key. “Although I can’t say the same for Hanji. She told me she knew all of your ‘dirty little secrets.’” Levi scowled in response, clearly not pleased at this information.

“Great. If four-eyes ever tries to tell you anything, tell her I said that I’ll tell you about our Junior year Halloween party if she does. That should shut her up.”

“Aw come on, Levi,” Eren pleaded, “You can’t just say that and leave me hanging. What happened?”

“No way, brat. I’m not giving up my ace in the hole that easy, so don’t even try to beg. And even if I would, I’ve got to get going, so I wouldn’t have time to tell you the whole story anyways.” He lazily swam over to the ladder and hauled himself out of the water.

They said brief goodbyes and parted ways. He was happy Levi was talking to him again, since he couldn’t exactly flirt with him without talking to him. Ha. He said that like any flirting was actually happening. At least he finally figured out why Levi didn’t come on Fridays—which reminded him of what Levi had said about Hanji. Asking his boss for any help was out of the question since Levi clearly didn’t want her telling any of his secrets to anyone, especially Eren. With Hanji out and his flirting plan essentially failed, it looked like he’d need a new strategy.

***

Eren spent most of his night thinking and overthinking how to talk to Levi—at this point, it really wasn’t a new train of thought. He found his mind drifting to the man more and more frequently, always seemingly at the most inopportune moments. His professor had to reprimand him for not paying attention during discussion just the other day, a fact that, looking back on it, made him grimace in embarrassment. It was hard not to think of him though: Levi was an enigma. The more Eren learned about him and talked to him, the more questions he had. And although he liked that aspect of Levi, it sure as hell made it difficult to figure out how to approach him. Eren preferred to face things head on, but he wasn’t so sure Levi would appreciate that. Subtlety was never his strong suit either, so he wasn’t sure what options that left him with.

He rolled over, shoving his face into the pillow and sighing. If he was a normal person, he would’ve given up long ago, but his friends didn’t call him a stubborn bastard for nothing. Eren never had any problems picking up someone before, but Levi was miles out of his league. He was put-together, smart, successful, good looking, and built. Like geez, how did he get his back muscles so defined? The thought made his dick twitch in interest which sent Eren shooting upright in bed.

“No, nope, we are not doing this right now,” he whisper shouted down at his crotch. “I have to see him in less than 6 hours, so please chill the fuck out because I am _not_ doing that.”

He tossed and turned in bed for another hour, trying to think of anything but Levi, before finally falling asleep later than he should’ve. Suffice to say, Eren was more than a little groggy the next morning. He was working with Connie, so he couldn’t count on Sasha to save him with coffee, and he didn’t plan ahead to wake up early enough to go buy or brew his own, so he’d just have to suffer through this shift until he could run to Dunkin after work. He went through the opening duties with Connie in a haze, and unfortunately his coworker insisted Eren go up first today, meaning he wouldn’t get to hide in the office and slowly wake himself up—he’d have to be alert first thing.

Eren climbed on stand and plopped down, rubbing at his eyes and attempting to banish the sleep from them. Just a few hours and then he’d be free, he told himself—as long as he didn’t fall asleep on stand, he could make it. The few early-bird regulars filed in and dove into their usual lanes. Eren stared at them as hard as he could, making sure to actively move his head to follow their movements, but still caught his head drooping a few times. He propped his head up on his palm, trying to keep himself from slipping again, and when he sensed someone walking up to the guard stand, he called out a half-hearted good morning to them, not bothering to look over in favor of making sure his eyelids stayed open.

“Jesus, you look like shit.”

He twisted his head around at the sound of the unmistakable deep voice and did a double take, sassy quip dying on his lips as he stared at the man before him. Levi always wore black jammers to the pool, so why the fuck was he wearing swim briefs? The short swimsuit accentuated his normally hidden thighs and Christ, his bulge was a _lot_ more noticeable now. He pulled his gaze back up to Levi’s face, seeing a bemused smirk there, and Eren could already feel his own face reddening.

“Levi, hey, new swimsuit?”

The man raised an eyebrow at that. “So no response to me saying you look like shit? If you didn’t have to be at work, I’d tell you to go back to bed—you need it.”

Eren cleared his throat, embarrassed at not paying attention to the conversation. “Yeah, I didn’t sleep very well last night. Definitely rough around the edges this morning, sorry.”

“No big deal, brat. And to answer your earlier question, yes new suit. I took your advice and bought another one since it seemed to bother you so much.”

“Hey, don’t make it sound like I forced you into it. That was on you.” Levi’s swimsuits had been fine, if a bit boring, since they all looked exactly the same. He only recommended buying more so the man wouldn’t be inconvenienced if he forgot one on accident, but he wasn’t regretting it now—the last thing he expected was for the man to show up in swim briefs but Eren wasn’t going to complain. The speedo left little to the imagination and he was very much enjoying the sight. “You look uh, I mean, it looks good. On you.”

Levi sucked his teeth against his tongue. “I’m just glad you’re not complaining that I got black again. I’m sure you’d prefer I have cats or some shit plastered all over my ass.”

The mental image made Eren laugh. “Don’t give me any ideas. Black is fine, but I’d pay money to see you in that.”

“Oh fuck off. You’re as bad as Hanji.”

With that, Levi turned around and walked towards the pool, giving Eren prime view of his backside. Goddamn, that new swimsuit sure did cup Levi’s ass perfectly. The view of his back muscles and ass reminded him of last night, making his dick rise to half-mast. _You fucking traitor,_ Eren thought to himself as dragged his gaze away from the tempting sight and focused on willing himself back to flaccid. He’d never been more thankful to be sitting down with the guard tube in his lap, but nothing could hide the blush across his face. Of course it was at that exact moment that Levi decided to turn back around, catching a clear look at Eren.

“What, see something you like?” he called out, face deadpan, giving nothing away. As Eren tried to stutter out an answer, he let out a chuckle before diving into the pool.

Eren followed his movements, watching his body move under the water across the pool floor until he ripped his gaze away from the man once again, staring hard at the other patrons. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Was Levi flirting with or mocking him? He’d said it flatly and with his usual resting bitch face, so there was no way to infer anything from his tone or expressions. Either way, Levi was catching on to him—but he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. He hadn’t realized he had been so obvious.

He tried his best to avoid Levi for the rest of his shift, but the raven was making himself impossible to ignore. Every time he took a break, he swam over to the guard stand and initiated conversation, even going so far as to hop out and sit on the gutter a few times, something he’d never done before, and which just so happened to put his body perfectly on view. Eren stubbornly looked only at Levi’s face, refusing to let his eyes wander no matter how badly he wanted to watch the way the water ran down and dripped off of the man’s alabaster skin. It wasn’t fair that he got to look so good while Eren, to put it in Levi’s own words, looked like shit today. To make matters worse, Levi seemed slightly amused by the whole thing—although he didn’t do or say anything to make Eren think that, he could just tell: he liked putting Eren on edge. When Connie came to rotate him out, he was thankful he could finally go hide out in the office.

“Ugh, another dude in a speedo? Why can’t they all just wear the regular ones?” He glanced sideways at Eren as he clambered down. “Although I’m guessing you’re not complaining about it.”

He didn’t even bother replying, marching straight into the guard office without looking back. Eren threw himself into a chair, groaning as it rolled him across the floor. He wasn’t going to make it to the end of this shift. He’d either die from embarrassment or attraction. It shouldn’t have been such a big deal—he saw Levi in a swimsuit nearly every day, but something about the swim briefs really struck a chord in Eren, or more specifically, his dick. If Levi started wearing those on a daily basis, he was a goner. He tried to distract himself with his phone, knowing he was too tired to make any progress on homework, but even that wasn’t working. He scrolled mindlessly, not absorbing the information on the screen, busy thinking about how the hell he was supposed to face Levi if he kept this up. A throat clearing finally startled him out of his trance.

Levi stood in the doorway of the office, casually leaning one shoulder against the doorjamb, towel thrown over the other shoulder. His hair had been toweled off and looked fluffier than normal, but a few rogue water drops that had evaded the towel trailed down his neck and over his chest. Eren was so caught off guard he didn’t know what to say besides the obvious. “You’re out early.”

“You don’t say,” Levi responded with a quirk of his eyebrow. “I’ve got to head to work early today, so I had to cut my laps short.”

“Oh. So uh…” he trailed off, not quite sure what to say.

“I came to make sure you’re okay, if that’s what you’re wondering. You seemed a little distracted earlier.” While it was considerate for him to check up on him, the last thing Eren wanted right now was Levi pointing out how much the man was throwing him off.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m ok, I’m good,” he said, waving him off. “Just tired. Like I said, I didn’t sleep well.”

Levi hummed thoughtfully. “Well, if it keeps up, try chamomile or lavender tea. Last thing Hanji needs is for your ass to be falling asleep on stand.”

“I usually just take a couple of shots,” he joked, “But thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Was Levi legitimately concerned about him? God, here he was thirsting after the man while he was trying to make sure Eren was ok.

“God, college kids and your alcohol tolerance.” He glanced at the watch on his wrist with a sigh out his nose. “Duty calls. I’ll see you around Eren. Get some sleep.”

“I’ll try to. Thanks, Levi.” Once the man was out of sight, Eren buried his head in his folded arms. How was he supposed to survive this? He couldn’t take Levi looking like that every morning on top of him being concerned for his wellbeing—he’d combust or worse, find a way to embarrass himself like he always seemed to. He’d never been this torn up over another person before. What he really needed to do was blow off some steam, get his mind off of the man. He kept a towel, goggles and an extra pair of jammers in his backpack for a reason. Once his shift was over and Reiner and Bert came to replace him and Connie, he could swim some laps. Hopefully that would be enough to knock the image of Levi in a speedo out of his head.

***

The workout helped wake him up and calm him down, but it didn’t stop Eren from thinking about Levi. The man seemed to plague his mind as he went to class, followed him as he coached his swim kids, and still lingered as he sat at the table trying to study after dinner. Trying being the key word—he kept losing his place in his reading, wondering how he was supposed to survive the coming week at work. His leg jiggled nervously under the table until it was suddenly stilled by the sound of Armin slamming his hand down on the wood.

“Ok, out with it. You obviously need to vent, and I can’t study with you like this.” The comment made Eren flush in embarrassment. He hadn’t meant to distract his roommate, but he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to realize that was exactly what he’d been doing.

“Sorry, Arm.” Sighing out his nose, he leaned back in the kitchen chair, wondering where to even begin. “You remember the hot guy from work I told you about?”

That seemed to get his attention. “Did you figure out if he was gay?” he said, shutting his laptop and pushing it off to the side, gossip taking precedence over studying for the moment.

“No, that’s the problem. My plan to flirt with him kind of backfired. He just keeps blindsiding me and I don’t know how to respond.” He laid his head down on his open textbook, glancing forlornly over at Armin.

“You’ve got it bad, huh?” Eren pouted but Armin continued before he could protest. “You don’t normally get hung up like this. What’s he doing?”

“I think, emphasis on think, he’s flirting with me, but I can’t tell! Like he said he liked my hair, and one time he called me distracting, but then again, that could have been an insult, but it seemed like he meant it as a compliment. He’s just so fucking deadpan about everything it’s hard to get a read on him. He’s like Mikasa but worse.” Armin opened his mouth to say something, probably tell him it wasn’t that bad, but Eren continued uninterrupted. “And it gets worse! Well, better, but also worse. Today he showed up in swim briefs, Armin, swim briefs! And he was totally flaunting it—he knew how good he looked. When he caught me staring, he asked if I liked what I saw, and I swear to god I wanted to drown myself then and there out of embarrassment.”

“Eren,” his roommate started slowly, “I know you can be an idiot sometimes, but Jesus Christ, are you dense?”

He turned away from Armin, shoving his face into the textbook underneath him. “I came to vent, not be attacked,” he said, voice muffled by the pages. Armin grabbed the back of Eren’s shirt, hauling him up so he could actually look at his face.

“Look, I’m not an expert, but that sounds like flirting to me. I don’t see why you don’t think so.” It wasn’t that Eren didn’t think it was flirting, he just didn’t see why Levi would be flirting with _him._ Levi was established, an actual functioning and successful adult. Even though he was 23, Eren still didn’t feel like an adult—being a college student that still worked part-time at a pool didn’t help things. They were leagues apart, but he didn’t want to unleash all of his self-doubts onto Armin.

“I don’t know. He’s just so subtle about it, and I don’t want to read into it wrong. He could just be joking around.” Unless Levi was completely explicit and obvious in his flirting, Eren most likely wouldn’t accept it for what it was.

Armin rubbed at his forehead, glancing sidelong at Eren. “Have you talked to Mikasa about it? You said they were similar, so maybe she could give you her interpretation. She’s also the only one dating someone out of the three of us.”

“Hey, don’t pretend I don’t know about the thing you’ve got going with Annie from your Pharmacology class.” The comment made Armin blush, but he didn’t respond. “But no, I don’t want to distract her from her training camp. You know how she is—she’d be too busy worrying about my problems to focus on training.” Mikasa and Eren had essentially grown up together and both had been swimming together as long as they could remember. After she graduated, Mikasa had been scouted by the national team, and when she wasn’t training here, she was off at different training camps, gearing up for competitions throughout the year. It was difficult at first watching his friend fulfill the dream that he had hoped to follow, but he’d made peace with it and tried not to compare her successes to his own. He was proud of Mikasa and knew that no one worked harder or deserved it more than her.

“I guess that’s fair.”

“Besides, I don’t think she could give me any dating advice anyways. Jean was begging her to date him for years, so it’s not like she had to do any flirting herself.” The reminder made both of them laugh—Jean had simped over Mikasa for forever and neither of them ever thought he had any chance, until one day Mikasa decided to take him up on his offer of a date. The rest was history. Even though Eren liked to bicker with and insult Jean, he made Mikasa happy for some reason and wasn’t as terrible as he liked to complain he was.

They talked and joked for a while longer, slowly going back to the studying that they both should have been doing anyways. Although he still hadn’t figured out what exactly to do, or managed to stop thinking of Levi like he originally intended earlier today, Eren at least felt a little more confident about the whole thing. If Armin thought it was flirting, then it had to be. That only left him to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do if Levi flirted with him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed the mental image of Levi in a speedo ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Ah, I love torturing Eren. 
> 
> Thank you again to everyone who has commented/left kudos/bookmarked! Your support feeds my writing fire and means the world to me!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interest and Interrogations

Hanji cornered him the next morning when they were once again scrubbing the deck. He was starting to suspect that she was doing it on purpose—he couldn’t just abandon his cleaning duties and hide in the bathroom or guard office, so it made for the perfect time for her to interrogate him.

“So Eren,” she began, faking casualness, “How’s things with Levi going?”

He was grateful it was his turn to hose down the deck as it gave him an excuse to turn his back to his boss, pretending to blast away more suds to avoid her probing stare. “Oh, uh, things?” he stammered out. What was Hanji trying to insinuate? “I guess he’s fine, I mean, I’m uh, things are fine. Good. Great.” He heard her hum as she resumed scrubbing. Assuming that was the end of the conversation and that he was safe, Eren turned back around only to find Hanji closer to him than he expected, catching him off guard and making him take a small step backwards.

“Did you come up with any questions you want to ask about him? Embarrassing stories? Likes and dislikes?” she said leaning forward even closer, maniacal glint to her eye.

“Oh actually, Levi did tell me to tell you that if you said anything about him, he’d tell me something about Halloween. I can’t remember exactly what he said though.” From the way Hanji’s face paled, it was clear she understood what he meant regardless. She rocked back upright, suddenly quiet, leaning heavily against the scrub brush in her hand.

“Ah, so that’s how he wants to play. Got it.” And with that, she resumed scrubbing the pool deck, expression unreadable. The silence felt tense, silent save for the spray of the hose and the scrub of the brush on concrete, and it made Eren nervous: a quiet Hanji was a scary Hanji. He wondered what story was so terrible it would make his boss stop in her tracks like that, especially since she was never one to take no for an answer. Thankfully by the time they had finished scrubbing and readied to open the pool, she was back to her normal bubbly and eccentric self. The rest of the shift went by as normal, and by the end, Eren had forgotten the exchange had even occurred.

***

The weekend passed quickly, as weekends always seem to. Eren ended up calling Mikasa—it had been too long since they last talked, and he’d been meaning to for a while—but conveniently left out any mention of Levi. He and Armin hung out, played video games, and studied together for most of the time. When Armin left the apartment suspiciously well-dressed claiming he had errands to run Sunday afternoon, he didn’t call him out on the obvious lie and instead opted to tell him to have fun with the “errands,” causing his roommate to flee the apartment even faster. Eren didn’t think too much of it until he was at work Monday morning. His brain had finally woken up enough to form coherent thoughts, one of which was connecting the dots of the open bedroom door and empty room to realize that Armin hadn’t come home last night. He wanted to text him, to make sure that he hadn’t been kidnapped or murdered on his “errands,” but he was already on stand and his phone was in the guard office.

Huh. It wasn’t like Armin to not let Eren know if he wouldn’t be home, so he figured his roommate wasn’t planning on his “errands” keeping him gone all night—“errands” that he suspected involved a certain girl. A door opening and shutting dragged him out of his thoughts and a quick look determined that, yep, that was Levi headed right towards him. Fuck. He’d been too caught up thinking about Armin to even try and brace himself for the sight that greeted him because Levi had decided to once again torture Eren by wearing that godforsaken pair of swim briefs. Goddamn, what a blessing and a curse.

“Well you look considerably less shitty than last time I saw you. Finally get some sleep?” Levi said, strolling up to the guard stand. His comment took Eren aback but also put him slightly more at ease. He expected Levi to flirt with him again, not offer him a backhanded compliment, but at the same time, banter was a hell of a lot easier for him to deal with than flirting.

“Yeah, sleeping in over the weekend helped a lot. It was nice not having to get up and let the elderly in at the ass crack of dawn for once.” If Levi wanted to dish out sass this early in the morning, he should’ve been prepared to receive it right back.

“Oi, keep it up and this old man will stop coming at the ass crack of dawn.” He crossed his arms over his muscled chest, face pinching in what could almost pass, at least for Levi, as a pout.

“Psh, yeah right,” Eren laughed out, calling bullshit on Levi’s empty threat. “Then you wouldn’t have anyone to talk to in the mornings anymore. You’d miss me too much to leave.”

“You got me there,” he replied before walking off to set down his stuff. Wait. Eren had said it as a joke, but Levi hadn’t argued against it. He ran a hand through his hair in minor distress—so much for getting through this morning without any flirting.

Levi hopped in the pool and began his laps without starting any further conversation, which Eren was thankful for. This gave him time to think of his options before Levi tried to talk to him again. Flirting was completely out, at least on his end: he didn’t have the confidence to try it out without making himself look like an idiot, which was the last thing he wanted to happen. Bantering was a solid option, considering it worked pretty well earlier, but it also came with the risk of Levi thinking he was actually making fun of him. Then again, the chances of that happening were pretty slim since the man seemed to have pretty thick skin. In fact, Levi seemed to get more angry on Eren’s behalf than anything else—he was upset when he thought Eren had given up on swimming, and when he was distant afterwards, it was because that’s what he thought Eren wanted, not due to any anger on his part. God, why did Levi have to be hot _and_ weirdly nice? It made everything so much harder.

Glancing at the clock behind him, Eren saw that it was almost time for Levi’s first break, meaning he was running out of time to come up with a game plan. His mild panicking was interrupted by the door opening, followed quickly by shrieking too loud for how early it was—shrieking that he knew could only belong to one person. Whipping his head around in surprise, Eren watched as Hanji bounded her way over to him, or more specifically, the lane directly in front of him. He wasn’t sure why exactly his boss had decided to show up, but he figured it had something to do with Levi, what with the way that she was beelining straight towards him.

“Levi! Short stack!” she called out as she neared the edge of the water, but Levi ignored her, continuing with his laps as though he hadn’t heard her at all. Eren wasn’t sure how he managed that, since almost everyone else in the pool had turned to look at Hanji when she yelled out.

“Hey, I know you can hear me, asshole,” she called again as he came closer on his return lap. Just as Levi was about to launch into a flip turn and continue swimming, Hanji stuck her arm in the water, blocking his path.

Stopping reluctantly, he floated to the surface, grinding out a dull “Hi Hanji.” Eren knew that they were friends, but at the moment, Levi looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than here.

“Oh so that’s all you have to say, huh?” She took a seat on the bulkhead, obviously ready to sit and chat for a while. “I know you’ve been avoiding me Mr. Grumpypants. Don’t pretend I didn’t know you’ve been coming here.” Levi shot a glare up at Eren that Hanji didn’t miss. “No, don’t blame Eren for it. Moblit told me when you signed up for a membership. I kept hoping that my bestest friend would come visit me, but alas, you never bothered to come see me. You wound me, Levi,” Hanji sighed dramatically, sweeping an arm across her forehead.

Levi didn’t seem swayed by it—Eren assumed he was used to Hanji melodramatic act after knowing her for so many years. “It’s because you do shit like this, four-eyes. I want to swim my laps in peace.”

“Oho, and swim you have. Look at you, all muscly and in a speedo even! You look good, Levi.” Levi narrowed his eyes at the comment, seemingly wary of what exactly Hanji was saying, while Eren was just confused. Hanji was married to Moblit, so it was weird that she was commenting on how the man looked. “You know, it’s just such a shame that you don’t have anyone to appreciate how hot you are,” she elaborated. Holy shit, so Levi really was single—Eren had kind of assumed it at this point, what with all the flirting, but damn, it was good to know for sure that he was right.

“Hanji….” Levi said, tone warning and looking about ready to murder his boss if she said anything else.

Hanji continued unperturbed. “I know some cute guys I could hook you up with. You’re letting your good looks go to waste.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Levi surged up out of the water and propelled himself onto the bulkhead, grabbing a fistful of Hanji’s shirt and pulling her close to his face. “Eren, I’m gonna need you to look away for a second while I drown your shitty boss.” Hanji seemed to find the whole thing hilarious, cackling like a maniac despite the threat of being dragged into the water.

“Oh, I uh,” he swallowed around a suddenly dry throat, brain still whirling trying to process everything that just happened. “I don’t really, uh, think that uhm, I can….technically?” He knew his words were stuttered and awkward, but he didn’t pay it any mind, too busy processing everything Hanji had just revealed. Levi was gay. Levi was gay _and_ he was single. Holy shit.

Levi turned to look up at him, no doubt seeing how red Eren’s face was, before turning back to Hanji and releasing his grip on her shirt. “You’re coming with me, shitty glasses,” he said gruffly, hauling himself up out of the pool.

“Leeevvviiiii,” she begged, but he grabbed at her arm and began dragging her towards her office. “C’mon, you never let me have any fun.”

Levi turned back to say something to her, but he’d already marched the two of them far enough away that Eren couldn’t hear what he said. They retreated into Hanji’s office and the door slammed shut with a booming finality. He could tell that Levi was upset at Hanji, but he seemed more pissed off than an interrupted swim session warranted and definitely angrier than Eren had seen him before. He rubbed at his temples—it was way too early for his brain to try and process what just happened. Everything Hanji said had been what he’d been hoping to hear. Part of him had always held back before, scared he was misinterpreting everything, but now he knew for sure that Levi really was gay and single and possibly interested in him. This was the ideal situation. He had one hundred percent confirmation, everything was just like he wanted, so why did he feel more nervous than before?

Maybe it was because he now lacked some form of plausible deniability, a way to give himself an out. Before, he didn’t know _for sure_ Levi was gay or single, so he couldn’t _possibly_ make a move and would just have to keep things the way they were. If he was really being honest with himself, he’d just been trying to self-sabotage. Levi was too out of his league and Eren didn’t think he’d have a chance, so he just didn’t try. Not knowing was just an excuse to keep avoiding it. He ran a hand through his hair, fiddling with the small ponytail he’d tied: he hadn’t expected to put himself through psychological evaluation today. Eren at least knew that stressing about anything would just make his day a lot more, well, stressful, and wouldn’t do him much good, at least not right now. Instead, he focused on trying to clear his mind, taking deep breaths and willing his face to stop being so red and go back to its normal tan. His mock meditation was interrupted by Sasha.

“You want to explain why our boss just got dragged into her office?” she said, half joking and half concerned by the strange situation.

Eren climbed off of the stand, making way for Sasha to climb up. “Don’t worry, they’re friends. Levi’s pissed at Hanji, but nothing bad will happen. I think.”

“Ok, but why is Levi pissed at Hanji? What happened?” Eren sighed before explaining.

“Well, that’s kind of what I was trying to figure out. Hanji interrupted Levi’s laps, which I know he was probably annoyed by. He told me he doesn’t come on Friday’s specifically to avoid her. But then she started joking around with him and said that she could set him up with a guy she knows, which was when Levi got really pissed and dragged Hanji off.”

“So he is gay!” Sasha shouted in her excitement, eyes wide and smile even wider. Eren whipped his head around, making sure no one else had heard, and thankfully all of the other patrons were mid-swim.

“Jesus, Sash, tell the whole pool, why don’t you. Yes, he’s gay and single, at least according to Hanji.” She gave him a knowing and slightly accusatory look that Eren waved off. “Nope, don’t even think about it. I don’t wanna hear it right now,” he said, walking off for his break.

“I totally called it!” she yelled after him, making Eren walk even faster to the safety of the guard office.

Once inside, he collapsed into his chair and snatched up his phone, texting Armin like he meant to earlier. He typed and retyped a message, unsure of what exactly to say before finally settling on something: _Really hoping you just forgot to text me you’d be gone all night and haven’t been kidnapped or murdered. Sounds like you had fun running those errands. Also please come home asap because holy shit do I have a lot to tell you._ That reminded him; the guard office was right next to Hanji’s. As of right now, he couldn’t hear anything coming from next door, so he assumed that they were working everything out and not just yelling at each other. He decided to throw himself into his homework, hoping that focusing on something would help keep his mind from overthinking today’s events. It seemed to work, since a clearing of the throat was the only thing to snap him out of focusing on his textbook. He looked at the door expecting Hanji only to find Levi.

“Hey.”

“Oh, hey. Sorry, I was just doing some stuff for class.” He shut his textbook and turned to fully face the man, hoping he’d be able to shed some light on what happened between him and Hanji.

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt you,” he apologized, voice sounding almost…gentle? “Just wanted to check in quick and see if you were okay.”

The question took Eren by surprise. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Sure, he was a little taken aback by everything, maybe even a little shocked, but Eren was fine, really. He honestly didn’t know why Levi was asking about him. “Are _you_ okay? You seemed kind of upset.”

“Hanji likes to overstep boundaries. You think I’d be used to it by now, but four-eyes always finds new ways to piss me off.” Eren shot him a skeptical look, not really thinking anything was resolved, so he continued. “It’s fine. We talked it out like adults, don’t worry. I promise I won’t drown your boss. I’ll let you get back to studying.” And just as quick as he came, Levi left.

So study he did, spending the rest of his break diving back into his homework. After rotating Sasha out, Levi still came and talked to him on his breaks, making small talk and discussing their weekends, but Eren could tell something was off. Levi wasn’t talking as much as he usually did and there were no offhanded flirty quips tossed his way. It seemed like whatever he talked about with Hanji had affected him more than he was letting on. They said brief goodbyes when Levi departed for work, and the rest of the shift passed without any other sort of surprises. Hanji never left her office while Levi was there, and when it was time for him and Sasha to leave, she still hadn’t emerged. As Eren headed back to his car, bundling his coat closer around him—damn, it was that time of year, but he couldn’t believe how cold it had gotten already—he checked his phone, but Armin still hadn’t said anything.

***

By the time Armin finally arrived back at the apartment, Eren was waiting for him in the kitchen, cup of coffee in hand, looking like the stereotypical wife staying up late waiting on her husband to come home. Armin looked tired and more disheveled than he left, so Eren wordlessly slid a second cup of coffee over to his roommate, waiting for him to get his caffeine fix before digging into his lecture.

As soon as the first gulp of coffee slid down the blonde’s throat, Eren started, wasting no time to get to the point and pulling no punches. “So, how’s Annie?” The comment made Armin choke mid sip.

“Ha, guess I’m pretty bad at keeping secrets,” he said, rubbing at the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry I didn’t text you. I fell asleep without meaning to, and by the time I read your text this morning, I was already heading back. So what happened at work that’s so important?” Eren noticed the way he neither confirmed nor denied that he was with Annie and made a note to pester him about it later, but for now, he really needed to vent.

“Ok so Hanji showed up like super early today, which she never does. And as soon as she gets there, she goes and starts talking to Levi, which makes sense since they know each other, but Levi’s like lowkey pissed off by it. Then Hanji goes on about how hot Levi is, which she’s not wrong about, but then she says that he’s wasted being single and that she knows guys she could hook him up with. He’s gay, Armin! He’s gay and single!”

His roommate raised an eyebrow at him behind his coffee mug. “Didn’t you already know that?”

“Yes, but also no. Like I thought so, but I didn’t _know_ know. So now that I know for sure, it’s like, woah, I actually have a chance at this.”

“Didn’t you just tell me how you thought he was flirting with you? I’m pretty sure you’ve always had a chance Eren,” Armin replied with a roll of his eyes.

“Ok but again, I didn’t know if he was actually flirting or not. Now that I know he’s gay, and that he’s single, it’s way more likely he was flirting.”

Armin ran a hand over his face in frustration. “Eren, I’m happy you got the confirmation you needed, but god, you really need to stop overthinking all of this. You’re just holding yourself back.” Ouch, Armin really hit the nail on the head, but it was something Eren had already realized himself—albeit very recently and a little late—so he didn’t like to be reminded of it.

“Well maybe if someone hadn’t lied to me and said they didn’t know anything about flirting, I’d be a little better at this.” The accusation made Armin blush.

“Hey, it’s not like I did much of it myself, so I wasn’t lying.” Eren raised his eyebrows at that, not expecting his roommate to reveal anything, and clearly Armin hadn’t expected himself to reveal anything either. He put his coffee mug down on the kitchen counter quickly, clearing his throat. “Well, uh, I really need to go shower.” And with that, he made a speedy escape towards the bathroom.

“We’re talking about this later!” Eren called after him, but the door was already shut. No matter, he wouldn’t let Armin get off that easy—one way or another, he’d get him to talk. But for now, it was just him, his coffee, and his thoughts. He knew Armin was right, he was holding himself back when it came to Levi, coming up with excuses as to why it couldn’t happen. He wasn’t acting like his usual self-confident and hotheaded self—overthinking and pussying out wasn’t something Eren Jaeger did, and he vowed to put an end to it.

Why should he care if Levi was older and successful? Honestly, Eren liked that he was older, and even if it was intimidating to possibly date a lawyer, he knew he was a good coach and would be successful in his own way one day. Sure Levi was smart, but so was Eren, at least decently so. He did fine in school and know his shit when it came down to it. And so what if Levi was hot? Eren knew he was decently attractive, and although he wasn’t as ripped as the raven, years and years of swimming had made sure he was muscled and in good shape. Like Armin said, Levi seemed interested, so why should he hold himself back from the man? Besides, if Levi couldn’t handle Eren for exactly who he was, then fuck him. He didn’t need—or want—someone that wouldn’t like him for him. If he was still an awkward mess in front of the man, then so be it, that’s just how he was.

***

Eren walked into the pool the next morning with a confidence he hadn’t felt in a while, ready to take on anything Levi could throw at him. When he arrived, wearing those damned swim briefs that he seemed to solely wear now, Eren was unfazed—sure, his heart beat a little faster, but the sight of Levi no longer made him a gay disaster, at least on the outside, which really was all that mattered to Eren. He started all of their conversations, beckoning Levi closer every time, acting playful and brazen, like he’d never felt awkward before. He asked about Levi’s hobbies and interests, his friends, the latest tv shows he watched and books he’d read, asking everything he’d wanted to know before but had held himself back from asking for fear he’d come across as pushy or overstepping boundaries. Levi was surprisingly receptive to the questions, answering every one at length despite Eren’s initial fear that he’d receive only one-word answers, never leaving anything unanswered. But something still felt off. Call it a hunch, an instinct, a gut reaction, but Eren could tell that something was up. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but Levi almost seemed subdued. Although he talked consistently and in his usual crude way, the usual bite and fire, the intensity, the Levi-ness seemed off, gone. But he decided not to comment on it and the two parted ways.

Wednesday morning Eren doubled his efforts, adding in more jokes and borderline flirtatious advances—still slightly too intimidated to openly flirt with the man, especially with the way he was acting yesterday. Levi chuckled at his jokes and played along, but it still seemed off. As the man swam laps, Eren tried to figure out what exactly made him feel this way. Levi was reciprocating, being more than willing to talk to him, but he no longer seemed to want to try and get a reaction out of Eren: he no longer made jabs at him or flirty remarks, or even concerned ones at that. Levi was right in front of him, but he didn’t feel the same. It both pissed Eren off and made him worried. Of course it had to happen that right when he finally got enough guts to pick up the ball Levi had thrown on his court, the other man had seemingly left the game. This sudden change sucked, but he was more concerned as to what caused it in the first place. The only thing that had changed was Eren’s advances. So, he backed off for the rest of the shift, not initiating any conversation, waiting to see if Levi would be more receptive to how he had been acting before. But instead, Levi didn’t do anything. He drank water and kept to himself during his breaks, and when he departed, he merely nodded his head at Eren as a goodbye. What the fuck was going on? Eren wracked his brain trying to come up with anything he could’ve said to the man, anything he did wrong, until he realized maybe it wasn’t him after all—the only thing that changed besides him was the conversation he’d had with Hanji. Squaring his shoulders, Eren decided he’d try once more tomorrow and if Levi was still off, no matter what it took, he’d drag an answer about what happened out of Hanji.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooohhhh we got some Hanji meddling. Who knows what will come of it? 
> 
> It's me. I knows ʘ‿ʘ
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and leave kudos, and a super huge thank you to those lovely people who left comments last chap!!! Your support means the world to me ^^


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow and Something More

Eren didn’t even snooze his alarm once Thursday morning, which to him was a new personal best. He hopped out of bed, ready to face Levi once again, and immediately regretted his haste in getting out of bed, discovering that his room temperature had dropped drastically in the night. With chattering teeth, he rushed to throw on his work uniform and toss sweatpants and a hoodie over it, padding his way into the hall once he finished to figure out what the fuck was wrong with the thermostat only to be stopped in his tracks. Out his living room window, everything was covered in a blanket of white, and from the looks of it, a pretty damn thick blanket. Jesus fuck, it had gotten colder earlier in the week, but it wasn’t supposed to snow, at least that’s what the weather radar from last night told him. However, fishing out his phone from his pocket, it lit up with notifications about a freak snowstorm that had rolled in last night, dropping almost a foot of snow on the surrounding area. Great. Eren rubbed at his forehead, knowing today was gonna be a huge pain.

Snowflakes continued to fall lightly outside. Although their town wasn’t a stranger to snow or cold weather, this was the first snow of the year, and a completely unexpected one at that, so of course it was going to take a while for the city to get their shit together and begin plowing off the streets, and even then, they’d focus on the main roads first, meaning smaller and more suburban streets, like the one the rec center was on, would take a while to get cleared. Eren was never more thankful to have four-wheel drive, although he was dreading scraping all the snow off his car first. With a sigh, he adjusted the thermostat so Armin wouldn’t freeze and prepared himself for his journey outside.

Clearing off his car was a bitch and a half, but after a few minutes of frantic snow sweeping, Eren was finally heading to work. He stuck to the main roads since the busiest ones had at least been half-assedly plowed, still an inch-thick layer of snow and slush clinging resolutely to the pavement, but eventually he had to turn off onto unplowed roads. The going was slow, but he made it to work in one piece with minimal anxiety, albeit ten minutes later than he was supposed to arrive. He retrieved his backpack and phone, shuffling his way towards the front door to scan himself in, and noticed that he had a couple texts from Connie. He punched the code and entered the building, making his way towards the pool as he scrolled through the messages. Apparently, Connie’s car wouldn’t start, which wasn’t surprising—it was a hunk of junk that barely ran even in nice weather, but he refused to get rid of it out of some sort of stubborn pride. Eren unlocked the door to the pool and sighed in relief at the warm air that rushed over him. Sweet, sweet humidity. He dropped his backpack in the office and shed his multiple layers, tempted to just jump straight into the pool to warm himself up.

Eren texted Connie back first, telling him to just chill at home and that it wasn’t a big deal. If it really came down to it, he could guard the shift by himself, and with the roads still a mess, he didn’t think many, if any, patrons would come today. He threw a text to the work group chat anyways—explaining the situation and seeing if anyone could come in to cover Connie—although he doubted he’d get a response. Any reasonable person would still be asleep this early, and even if someone was awake, it really wasn’t worth it for them to brave the snow to come in. Besides, Hanji usually came in later on in the morning, so his boss could help guard if he really needed it at that point. He sat around the office for a few minutes, killing time before he would have to go open the pool for whoever decided to show up.

6 am finally rolled around, and just like he predicted, no one was waiting when he went to unlock the locker rooms. Eren strolled back to the office, but something caught his eye out in the hallway, or more so a lack of something. All of the lights were still off. Strange, usually the rest of the morning shifters were here by now, but Eren supposed it wasn’t out of the question for everyone else to be running late too. He walked through the hallways, turning on all of the switches in the halls and lobby area, or at least all of the ones he knew—it wasn’t in his job description to open the entire rec center. Hopefully the front desk workers would be in soon to finish opening. It felt weird being the only one in the building, the bright florescent lighting bouncing off the tiled floors only accentuating how dark it still was outside, and the unsettling nature of it all made him speed back towards the familiarity of the pool. Eren got halfway down the hall before suddenly pivoted back towards the lobby; fuck, he forgot to unlock the front doors. No wonder no one had shown up yet: they couldn’t get in even if they wanted to. Snagging the hex key under the front desk, he headed towards the double doors, doing a double take and rushing to open the door when he realized someone had been standing outside.

“Oh shit, Levi?” He ushered the man inside, unlocking the door in the process as Levi kicked snow off of his boots in the entryway. “Sorry, were you waiting long?”

Levi pulled off his gloves, rubbing his fingers together. “My shit nearly froze in my ass.” He gave a cursory look around, noticing the half-lit halls and empty offices. “Hanji said you were open, but it doesn’t look like it.”

“Yeah, we’re open, just everyone’s just running late today. Roads were pretty shitty when I drove here.” He watched as Levi kicked snow off of his boots on the doormat and swept it from his duffle bag.

“”S why I walked,” the other man responded with a snort. Now that he mentioned it, it made sense why he was so coated in snow.

Eren began ushering Levi down the hallway towards the pool, frankly appalled that Levi walked who knows how far in this shitty weather. “Dude, what the hell? Why would you walk?” Not waiting for an answer, he hurried along, reaching the end of the hall and holding the door open for the raven. “Come warm up. Pool’s nice and toasty.”

Levi refused to be rushed, taking his sweet time strolling towards Eren. “Relax ‘dude,’ I don’t live far. No sense driving, so I walk. Besides, I don’t mind the cold.” He followed Eren through the door, the latter strolling ahead towards the guard office with Levi trailing behind. Eren almost didn’t notice when Levi stopped following behind him. He turned, question posed on the tip of his tongue, taking in the pinched look on Levi’s face and the way he now held a death grip on his duffle strap.

“You uh, you okay Levi?” The man in question looked around the empty pool, not meeting Eren’s eyes.

“I think I’m actually going to head back out. I don’t want to inconvenience you.” The sudden concern made Eren skeptical—how would he even be inconveniencing him? And since when did Levi seem…nervous?

Eren did the only thing he could think of in response: he laughed. “It’d be more of an inconvenience if you left. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we’re open, so I’m stuck here for the next few hours. If anything, I’d prefer the company. Besides, you’re already here. It’d be stupid to turn around and go home after you came all the way here.”

Levi looked at him as if he was trying to crawl inside his mind, silver eyes piercing into green. The intensity of it made Eren fidget nervously, waiting for the man’s decision, desperately hoping he’d stay. Levi finally broke his gaze and looked up towards the ceiling. “You sure don’t mince words, brat.”

“Yeah, but you like that about me.” The words had slipped off his tongue before he could think to stop them, but he didn’t regret saying them. Not with the way Levi’s lips parted and eyes widened just slightly, almost imperceptibly but enough for Eren to catch. Couldn’t regret them when it seemed to be the first time he elicited such a reaction out of the man.

“Whatever. I’m changing.” And with that, Levi turned on his heel and headed off towards the locker room. Eren counted that as a victory, happily moseying his way back to the office to wait for Levi’s return. He fished his phone from his pocket, stopping in his tracks when he saw the message from Hanji: _Hey Eren!!! Sorry this is getting to you a bit late, but the rec admin decided to delay opening the rec center until 10, so you can go ahead and close up the pool. Wish I could’ve let you know before you drove there, but they only just now made their decision._

Fuck. He ran a hand through his hair in distress, gnawing on his lower lip—this really threw a wrench in his plans. He didn’t think he’d get Levi to agree to stay in the first place, and now that the pool was supposed to be closed, there was no way he’d stick around. Goddammit. This was the first time it had ever been just the two of them by themselves and Eren had been looking forward to getting to spend time with just Levi, no coworkers, no other patrons, and no Hanji. He didn’t know when he’d get another chance like this. Eren honestly debated just not telling the man, but he knew Levi well enough to know that he wouldn’t appreciate being lied to. He would want the truth. But then came the trouble of convincing him to stay. The man seemed stubborn, but Eren had been called bull-headed enough to know that he might have Levi beat in that regard. Besides, with the way he looked at him earlier, Eren hoped it wouldn’t be as hard to convince Levi to stay as he first thought it would be. When Levi finally returned, he found the lifeguard pacing the office.

Not wanting to waste any time, Eren jumped right into his explanation. “Ok, so Hanji just texted me and apparently administration decided to delay opening the rec center. So we’re uhm, technically closed now I guess.” Levi simply furrowed his brow and turned to head back to the locker room without a word, but before he could even fully turn, Eren’s hand shot out, clasping around a pale wrist. The action surprised Eren even more than it did Levi, the two of them staring at where Eren’s tanned hand was wrapped around Levi’s skin. He dropped it, clearing his throat and rubbing at the back of his neck. “Sorry, it’s just that well,” he swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. “You and I both know Hanji won’t care. You’re already here, and I don’t mind. Really.”

“Eren,” Levi started, sighing out his nose and rubbing at the bridge. “You should head home. There’s no reason for either of us to be here. Pool’s closed so you’re not supposed to be working.” He didn’t move, facing Eren head-on as if waiting to see what he had to say. Waiting to be convinced that this wasn’t a terrible idea.

“Look, I’m staying here anyways. No point in me going back out until the roads have been plowed more. So either way, I’m not leaving.” Eren looked at Levi, challenging, asking, hoping. He didn’t want him to leave when he’d finally gotten so close, closer than he’d ever been to the man before, finally ready to stand his ground and try to fight for whatever this was, whatever he hoped it would be. “I won’t force you to stay, Levi. But I’d like it if you did.” Green eyes gazed into silver, resolute, unwavering. Too quickly for Eren’s taste, Levi huffed and looked away, at the ground, anywhere but him, and the sight made his throat tighten, thinking he’d lost. To his surprise, the man walked past him, heading towards the lap lanes.

“Alright brat, I’ll keep you company. But if this shit gets us in trouble, you’re taking the blame.” Eren couldn’t help the smile that ripped across his face, and when Levi turned around to see why he hadn’t answered, he was still beaming. “Jesus, you don’t have to look so happy about it.”

“Why? I am happy.” The blunt answer made Levi turn away, mumbling something under his breath that Eren didn’t catch. He still couldn’t believe he gotten him to agree to stay. Eren really didn’t think Hanji would care, but on the off chance he did get in trouble, any conceivable punishment would be worth it just to spend this morning with Levi. Speaking of Hanji, she did say to close the pool, so he needed to go close up the front desk. The last thing he wanted was some random patron stumbling in and ruining this time he’d worked so hard to get. “Hey Levi, do you promise not to drown for like, one minute? I gotta go lock up the front.” Levi just waved an arm at him as he dug around in his duffle bag.

Not wanting to waste time, Eren took off out the door and down the hall, bare feet slapping the tile and keys jangling in his pockets. He skidded to a stop in front of the front door and scanned the parking lot outside, making sure that no one else had decided to show up in the few minutes he was back in the pool, relieved to find that his car was still the only one in the snowy parking spot. Shivering from the chill radiating off of the cold glass, he hurriedly set about relocking the door, heading straight back to the pool as soon as the lock clicked into place. He sighed as the humidity of the pool surrounded him once he returned inside, surprised to find Levi sitting on the edge of the bulkhead.

“I said don’t drown, not that you couldn’t swim,” he called as he walked over to the guard stand.

Levi twisted his head at the sound of Eren’s voice, smirking. “Pool rules say no swimming without a lifeguard.” Eren grabbed the guard tube off of the stand, weighing his options for a second before deciding to sit at the edge of the pool for a change. He knew he’d never get a chance to be this close to Levi again and was going to take every liberty he could. Levi finally slid into the water once he saw Eren grab the guard tube, grimacing and scowling as Eren stuck his feet in the water. “Tch, your feet are probably fucking filthy, brat.”

Eren kicked them under the water, splashes getting dangerously close to hitting Levi. “What, they were cold.” He watched as Levi moved farther out of range. “Are you scared of feet or something?” 

“No, they’re just disgusting,” he said, retaliating with a splash of his own. Eren gaped at the wet mark that now drenched the front of his work t-shirt.

“Hey, there’s a rule against splashing the lifeguard you know.”

Levi raised his eyebrows, feigning innocence. “Last I checked, the pool was closed. You’re not on duty.” And with that, he pushed off the wall, starting his laps before Eren could even think to answer. Technically, Levi wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t really working, not technically. He watched the man cut through the water with ease, missing the feel of water on his skin—it’d been a little while since he’d swam any laps himself. If he wasn’t working, did he really _have_ to sit here and guard Levi? The raven was obviously a strong swimmer and in good shape, so the chances of him drowning or going into cardiac arrest were slim, and if Eren did decide to swim laps, he’d only be one lane away on the off chance something did happen. Mind made up, he splashed at Levi as he circled back until he had his attention.

“Hey, do you care if I swim some laps with you? Like you said, I’m not on duty.” Now that he had the idea in his head, he really hoped Levi agreed, itching to be in the water again.

The man simply shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”

“Ok, sweet, just uh,” he clambered up from where he had been sitting on the concrete. “Don’t drown please. I’ll be right back.” He hurried back to the guard office, grabbing his suit and ducking into the locker room, quickly swapping out his trunks for the jammers before heading back to the office. He shed his shirt and whistle, snatched up his cap, goggles, and water bottle, and headed back towards Levi. Eren caught the man eyeing him as he walked back. Levi looked away as he got closer, but Eren wasn’t about to let it go. Time to repay him for all the flirting and embarrassment he’d put Eren through.

“What, see something you like?” he teased as he worked on shoving his hair up into his swim cap.

Levi rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue at the question. “Just a shitty brat.” The taunt made Eren’s eyebrow twitch in irritation—he’d show him how much of a brat he could be. Without warning, he cannonballed into the lane next to Levi, dousing the man in a wave of water. When Eren pushed himself to the surface, Levi was wiping his face clear, glare cutting through his goggles. “Funny,” he replied mirthlessly.

“It was pretty hilarious,” Eren agreed, donning his own goggles and adjusting the straps. Levi rolled his eyes and resumed his laps before Eren could say anything more. He watched Levi for a moment, dark form moving beneath the surface, then held his breath for his own descent under water. Legs pushed him off the bulkhead, water rippling around him as he torpedoed towards the other end of the pool, bubbles escaping his nose in a rush, trailing off behind him. Eren broke the surface paddling, arms cutting through water like they were made to. He never tired of the feeling. He swam until he lost track of his laps, only finally stopping when he saw Levi had taken a break and was waiting around the shallow end. Eren popped up at the end of his own lane, panting, not really realizing how hard he had been pushing himself until he stopped, and snatched up his water bottle, taking long gulps from it before slumping against the bulkhead, chest still heaving.

Levi took a break from drinking from his own bottle to say, “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you swim before.”

Eren pointed his water bottle at him. “No, you have. When we raced, remember?” The reminder made Levi snort, a sound that shouldn’t have been attractive to Eren, but just like everything else the man did, he made it attractive.

“I wasn’t exactly paying attention to you. I was trying to kick your ass for being an annoying brat.”

“Annoying brat that was _right._ And hey, I kicked _your a_ ss, or did you already forget old man?” The age comment earned Eren a well-deserved splash to the face.

“I don’t think you’ll ever let me forget, even though I’ve already apologized for being an asshole.”

“I know, I know, I’m just teasing.” They drifted into an easy silence, both catching their breath and taking periodic sips of water. It felt easy, natural to be around Levi, swapping jokes, talking about life, shooting the shit, even just sitting in silence. It felt right. “Speaking of,” Eren said, breaking the quiet, “we should race again.”

“Beating me once not enough for you, brat?”

“C’mon Levi, it’ll be fun. I bet you could beat me if you really tried.” He grinned at the raven, a challenge in his eyes. Eren hoped if he could rile Levi up enough, he’d agree to race him.

Levi rolled his eyes, not convinced. “I know you’re just trying to goad me into racing you, Eren.” Dammit, did he have to be so perceptive all the time? Despite what Levi wanted, he wouldn’t be dissuaded—if anything, he just dug his heels in more.

“Yeah, so? Worried I really will beat you again?” He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips, facing the older man and challenging him to defend himself and prove him wrong. Levi took another sip from his water bottle before sighing.

“If it’ll get you to stop asking, then fine.” Although he said it in his usual disinterested tone, the squaring of his shoulders said otherwise. Eren had caught him hook, line, and sinker.

With a cocky smirk, he replied, “I’ll stop asking if you actually beat me.” Levi’s narrowed glare told him all that he needed to know.

“You’re on. We’ll start at the 30 second mark.”

Eren replaced his goggles and both men geared up to start, pressing themselves against the back of the bulkhead, watching as the clock ticked closer second by second. Then they were off, both springing from the wall with as much power as they could muster. Bubbles blurred Eren’s vision as he moved through the water, only clearing when he came up for air, and the first thing he saw was Levi neck and neck with him. Gritting his teeth, he shoved himself back under, even more determined to give it his all once he saw how hard Levi was pushing himself—he wouldn’t live it down if the man did manage to beat Eren. He kicked as fast as he could, feet paddling the water behind him, arms dragging himself further forward. The wall loomed in front of him and ducking into a tight flip turn, he propelled himself back off of it, sparing a second to glance in the lane next to him, finding again that Levi was keeping pace with him. Heart hammering, breath coming in spurts, he poured as much power and speed into his limbs as he could muster, drawing ever closer to the finish. In one final burst, he slammed his hand against the wall and splashed to the surface, whipping his head around to see Levi surfacing at the exact same moment. The two stared at each other for a moment, too out of breath to do anything else, before the accusations came flying.

“I totally beat you,” Eren boasted at the same time Levi gloated “I told you I’d kick your ass.” They stared at each other again, both processing what exactly the other had just said.

“No, it was close, but I came up before you.” Or at least that’s what Eren thought. Sure, Levi was tied with him almost the entire race, and sure, it looked like they popped up at the same time, but Eren had to have been ahead by just a second.

Levi scowled, as if he couldn’t believe that Eren would even think he’d won. “No, my hand hit the wall before yours.”

“No way you saw my hand hit the wall.”

“You just don’t want to admit you lost.” Eren wasn’t a sore loser. He could admit when he lost. But this, this was too close to honestly call. Normally he’d just admit a tie, but Levi seemed adamant that he won and Eren wasn’t going to admit to a loss that he wasn’t one hundred percent sure of. So instead, he made the very grown up decision to splash Levi in the face.

He watched grey eyes narrow behind his goggles before he was hit with an even larger splash to the face and chest. Eren looked down at where he was splashed, then back up at Levi, who was now smirking at him. Oh, two could play at this game. Using his entire arm in a giant sweep, Eren sent a wave of water propelling towards Levi, and if they hadn’t already been wet, the man would have been drenched. He laughed as water dripped off the man and back into the pool, too busy reveling in his self-thought victory to notice when Levi ducked silently back under the water. By the time he noticed, it was too late—Eren screamed as Levi popped up in front of him, completely unprepared to defend himself against the man grabbing his shoulders and dunking him under the water. As soon as he was under, Eren propelled himself off the bottom of the pool and launched himself at Levi, grabbing the man haphazardly and using his body weight to drag the both of them back under the water. They both came up gasping, Eren almost laughing too hard to catch his breath, and then Levi was launching his counterattack, trying to wrestle Eren into a headlock so he could dunk him again. Eren narrowly managed to slip out of his grasp thanks to the height difference and the fact that they were both soaked—wet skin didn’t exactly provide the best grip. He dodged Levi’s grabs, splashing the man when he got to close, the two of them chasing and splashing each other around the lap lane. Eren sidestepped one attempt, lunging to the side to avoid another, but Levi was slowly cornering him. The man faked him out to the left and then jumped to the right, Eren letting out a manly shriek as Levi finally tackled him, both of their bodies careening into the pool. When Eren popped up, he found himself in the headlock Levi was trying to put him into earlier, face hovering inches from the water’s surface. He struggled, trying to free himself, but goddamn those muscles weren’t just for show. In a different situation, he definitely wouldn’t have minded being held down like this though.

“Alright brat, admit you lost, or I dunk you,” came the deep voice from above him. Eren tried to twist around but he couldn’t see Levi’s face from the angle the man had him held.

“Never,” he called out cheekily. Eren was calling Levi’s bluff, no way he’d actually dunk him like this. But true to Levi’s word, Eren found himself with a face full of water before being hauled back up a split second later. He spluttered, part out of shock Levi would betray him like that, but mostly to just clear the water out of his nose.

“Ok, ok, can we call a truce? Let’s just say we tied,” he said, trying once again to wriggle out of Levi’s grasp. “Please don’t dunk me again,” he added for good measure.

“Fine,” he agreed, releasing Eren’s head from his arms. Eren slipped for a second before catching himself, narrowly avoiding dipping his face back in the water, then stood upright. He hadn’t realized how close they were. Eren gazed down at the man before him as Levi stared back. He was close enough to touch, to just reach out and cup that sharp jaw, run a thumb over those smooth lips, and god, Eren had never wanted to do anything more. Just lean down, close the distance between them, hug Levi’s body against his own, and gently press their lips together. His finger twitched, itching for an excuse to touch the man, any reason to put his tanned hands on the man’s pale skin, as he memorized every wrinkle, every line, every dip and curve of Levi’s face. This was what he’d been waiting for. He was close, so goddamn close, brain screaming at him to just do something, s _ay_ something. Tell Levi how much his shifts sucked when he wasn’t around, how he actually looked forward to getting up at the ass-crack of dawn because it meant he’d get to see Levi, talk to Levi, how he loved his dry and dirty sense of humor, how he was sweet and caring in the subtlest of ways, how Eren’s stomach tied itself full of knots every time he saw him, how even though he sometimes felt he didn’t deserve it, he desperately wanted to be near him, be with him.

Eren swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, glancing away to try and steel himself for what he was about to say. He couldn’t keep going on like this without ever telling Levi how he felt—if he had a chance to be with him, he would take it. He looked back at the man, resolute, ready. “Levi I—”

“I’m going to go finish my laps.”

Levi stepped back, turning around and ducking back underneath the lap lane line. Before Eren could even react, he was already under water and swimming away. He felt numb, a numbness that quickly burned its way to anger, frustration. He ripped the swim cap and goggles from his head, throwing them haphazardly onto the bulkhead, not paying attention to where they landed. Why wouldn’t Levi talk to him, _really_ talk to him? Why did he flirt and tease and compliment then run away and shut down, just to do it all over again? Why did he build Eren’s hopes up only to dash them and leave him hanging? Eren could take a rejection, but he couldn’t take this constant back and forth, never knowing where he stood with Levi or what the man was thinking. He marched over into Levi’s lane, arms crossed and stance wide, standing directly in his path so he wouldn’t be able to flip off the wall and keep avoiding him. He wouldn’t budge until he had an answer.

Levi paddled closer, stopping abruptly when he realized Eren was in his path. He stood up slowly, face stony before turning away, refusing to look at him. “Move, Eren.” Levi could try and avoid him all he wanted, but it wouldn’t work anymore.

“I’m not moving until you actually fucking talk to me!” The exclamation finally made Levi turn and face him.

“What the fuck is there to talk about?” He yelled back, spreading his arms wide.

God, was he playing dumb or was he just dense? “You wanna tell me what the fuck that was?” he said, gesturing vaguely to the lap lane they occupied moments ago. How could he ignore the tension there was between them and just run away? Why did Levi keep pulling away every time Eren wanted to get closer?

“Fine, fine!” He tore his goggles off of his head, cradling them in his hands, looking at Eren before glancing down, almost appearing to sag—he looked lost, alone, and if Eren wasn’t so frustrated with him, he would’ve wanted to hold him. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done that.” So Levi did understand. Eren was satisfied that he owned up to it, opening his mouth to say something to the man, but Levi continued. “I took it too far and made you uncomfortable. Sorry, I’ll just go.” He headed towards the ladder between them.

No, this was wrong. This was all wrong. Eren stepped forward, hoping to head him off before he could escape. “Levi, what are you talking about?”

The man stilled at the sound of Eren’s voice, looking ahead at the ladder as if he wished he had already left, unwillingly continuing the conversation. “I got too close and you tensed up and looked away. I can take a hint, Eren. You were obviously uncomfortable and now I’ve made you upset. I’m sorry.”

“You—I’m not…” he trailed off with a sigh, running his hands through his hair and trying to figure out the words to say. “I’m not upset with you, Levi, I’m…frustrated. You run away from me every time I get close to you, just like right now.” Levi crossed his arms, seemingly a little defensive of being accused of running away. “I got all tense and shit because, well, I liked splash fighting with you and dunking you. It was fun— _you’re_ fun. I like talking to you and spending time with you. I was trying to tell you earlier.” Eren looked up and found Levi was closer to him than before, staring at him with an unreadable expression. Although his stomach squirmed and his hands sweat, he squared his shoulders—his chance was here, and he was going to take it. “I like you Levi.” 

Levi continued to stare at him, digesting the information, before groaning and running a hand over his face. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

Eren snorted at the comment, gently prying the hand from Levi’s face so he could look at him properly. “Nah, you’re just bad at reading people apparently.”

“Hey, that makes two of us,” he countered with a quirk of his lips. “I’d been trying to flirt with you for a while, but you never seemed to pick up on it. I didn’t think you were interested.” Eren gave him a playful shove, face turning red—he’d suspected as much for a while, just hadn’t known how to respond.

“Not my fault you’re stupidly attractive. I couldn’t believe it at first, but then when I realized you might be hitting on me, I didn’t know what to do.”

“So you think I’m attractive?” Levi replied with a raise of his eyebrow, stepping closer to Eren.

He rolled his eyes in response. “Have you looked at yourself?” he said, eyeing the man up and down. “How could I not think you’re hot?”

“You’re not too bad yourself.”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Eren snorted.

“Yeah.” Levi stepped even closer with a smirk on his face, now barely two feet away. “Is it working?” Something flickered behind those grey eyes as they peered into Eren’s, gaze heavy, weighted. He could feel himself blushing again.

“You know, you never actually said if you liked me or not.” He knew. Of course he knew—had Levi not felt the same, they wouldn’t be having this conversation, wouldn’t be openly flirting, wouldn’t be standing so close, too close, magnetized and drawn together. Eren just wanted to hear Levi say it.

“I thought I made it obvious, but I guess not.” He waited with bated breath for the next words, heart beating faster and faster in anticipation, eager for the words to roll off of Levi’s tongue. “I like you, Eren.” And just like that, everything he’d been waiting for clicked into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ lo hicimos, the wait is over! After a rollercoaster of emotions, the dorks finally managed to communicate! 
> 
> Bit of a cliffhanger lol but this chapter was by far the longest I’ve written and if I didn’t chop it somewhere, it would’ve been very very lorge 
> 
> Huge thank you again to everyone who reads / leaves kudos / comments!! You all are the best!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dates and Numbers

Eren beamed at Levi, heart swelling with emotion, unable to form words to express how happy he was in this moment. He wished he could freeze it in time, bottle up this feeling, and knew either way he’d be replaying it over and over in his head for the next few nights. Levi gave him a small smile back, eyes soft and gaze fond. Eren found his own eyes skipping down Levi’s face to his lips—he’d never really seen Levi smile before and it was wonderful thing to behold. He wanted to kiss him.

Almost as if reading his mind, Levi voiced, “I’m not going to kiss you when you’re covered in pool water,” nose wrinkling in mild disgust at the thought. “I know Hanji runs a right ship so it’s not completely fucking disgusting, but I’m not putting that shit in my mouth.”

Eren gaped at him. “Wait, how did you know?”

“You’re not exactly subtle when you stare, brat,” he deadpanned. “I could see you looking at my lips.” Face growing red, Eren rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. He didn’t think he was so obvious. Seeming to sense his worry, Levi continued, “Relax, Eren. It’s not a bad thing. If you wash the pool off of yourself and let me take you out on an actual date, then we can see about following through on that.”

A date? An actual _date_? Just when he thought his morning couldn’t get any better. “Yeah, yeah, that sounds good,” he licked his lips, “a date would be great.”

Levi nodded his head, looking out past Eren for a second before moving towards the ladder. “I need to get going. You should probably head home as well. Roads should be cleared off by now.” Eren turned to look at the clock, noticing that it was indeed just a few minutes before Levi usually left for work.

He followed the man out of the pool, and when Levi began toweling off, he told him, “I’ve got four-wheel drive, so roads aren’t really a problem. I just told you I was worried about the roads to get you to stay with me.” Levi turned and glared at him from underneath his towel.

“Brat,” he muttered, turning back to finish drying off. Eren shot him a cheeky grin and waltzed off to the guard office to retrieve his own towel. He pulled one from his backpack, giving his body a rough once over to stop the worst of the dripping, then focused on sapping some moisture from his hair. When Levi walked up to the door, he found Eren bent upside down and vigorously scrubbing at his head. As Eren righted himself, Levi stuck a cellphone towards him.

“Here. Give me your number.” Eren made sure his hand was thoroughly dry before taking the proffered phone. He added in his number and name, putting a winking emoji next to his name, then handed it back over. Levi snorted when he saw what Eren had done. “Didn’t know that was how you spelled your name.” A second later, Eren heard his phone vibrate on the desk next to him. “I texted you, so you have my number,” Levi clarified. He snatched up his phone, smirking when he saw the plain _It’s Levi_ text the man had sent him. Of course he would be just as cut and dry over text as in real life.

“Yeah, I get the name thing a lot. It’s Turkish actually,” he replied, saving Levi’s contact information and putting another winking emoji by his name as well.

“Huh. Wouldn’t have guessed.” Levi slipped his phone into his duffle bag and turned to walk to the locker rooms, making it a few steps before turning back around with a raised eyebrow. “Are you not going to change?” he said, eyeing Eren up and down.

“Oh, uh, you can go ahead. I’ll just wait till you’re done.” It wasn’t like Eren had never changed around someone before—he’d been on swim teams for as long as he could remember, so he wasn’t exactly a stranger to being around naked dudes, especially ones that had no qualms about walking around locker rooms letting everything swing free or showering naked in the communal showers. But he’d never had to change with someone he was this attracted too and just didn’t want to make it awkward or make Levi uncomfortable, so he figured it’d be better to just change separately.

“Eren, it’s a huge ass locker room. But whatever, suit yourself.” Eren did in fact know it was a huge ass locker room because he’d had to clean it many a time whenever he worked closing shifts. Levi did have a point though; there were multiple little sub areas, private showers, and bathroom stalls, so he could always just hide away in one of those and stare at the wall. He’d meant to make it less weird for Levi, but now he was just making it weirder by refusing to change at the same time.

He hurriedly grabbed his clothes and towel, chasing after the raven. “Ok, ok, I’m coming.”

“Are you not going to shower?” Levi asked, eyeing Eren’s lack of toiletries.

“Nah, I just shower at home. Then I don’t have to mess with bringing anything.”

Levi shot him a disgusted look as he pushed open the locker room door. “I don’t know how the fuck you can stand that chlorine shit on you for so long.”

“I mean, I shower as soon as I get back, so it’s not like I’m waiting very long.” He followed Levi through the open door. “Guess I’m just used to it though. Years of swimming and all that.”

“Tch, still gross,” Levi retorted, setting his duffle bag in one nook of lockers. He’d never known that the man was so anal about cleanliness, but now he knew it was something to really keep in mind with the way that Levi was so vehemently against chlorine. Eren decided to play it safe and headed to the complete opposite side of the room, a wall of lockers separating them and ensuring that they wouldn’t see each other. He set about changing, hearing the sounds of Levi padding to a shower, the curtain being drawn shut, and the water turning on. He shucked off his wet swimsuit and traded it for dry clothes, peeking his head out from around the corner after he was done to see where Levi was at. Steam billowing up from one of the showers told him everything he needed to know.

“Hey, Levi! I’m going to go finish closing the pool, okay?” he called to the man, hoping he could be heard over the rushing water. After hearing Levi’s affirmative yell, he headed back into the pool. Eren sped through his closing duties, ready to head home, shutting off the lights, checking the pool chemicals, clocking out, and gathering up his stuff before heading into the hall. He was assuming Levi was still in the locker room since he wasn’t in the hall, so he took a seat at the bench against the wall, waiting for him to finish up so they could leave together. He fished his phone from his pocket and shot Armin a quick text: _ARM!!!!! You better be up when I get back because holy fuck dude, I can’t believe today._ Putting his phone away, Eren studied the locker room door—Levi sure was taking his time, but then again, was he even still there? It was entirely possible he had just left while he was closing, even though Eren didn’t like thinking about Levi leaving him without saying goodbye. He could just go see for himself, but he didn’t want to make the man feel like he was rushing him, especially since Eren really didn’t have anywhere else to be, or even worse, make Levi think he was trying to creep on him. The thought made him grimace; best to just wait it out a little longer. No sooner had he thought that than Levi pushed open the door to the hall, clad in the same clothes he’d been wearing when he came in.

“Wait, I thought you wore a suit to work?” Eren said, eyeballing the sweatpants and boots Levi had on, the rest of him being covered by his winter coat.

“I do,” Levi said, winding a scarf around his neck. “I don’t go straight to work from here though. I drop my stuff off and change at home.” Eren hummed and nodded in response. They walked down the hallway towards the entrance, towards their departure. It seemed silly but Eren really wasn’t ready to say goodbye. He knew he’d see Levi on Monday—maybe even sooner, depending on when they had their date, the mere idea of which made Eren’s stomach tie itself in happy knots—and he had his number, so it wasn’t like it a was an actual goodbye. But regardless, he was loath to leave him.

They pushed their way through the doors outside, both wincing at the blast of cold air that hit them, too used to the warmth of the pool to be prepared for the frigid temperatures outside. At least it looked like the roads had been plowed more, although the same couldn’t be said for the sidewalks. Most people weren’t even awake yet, let alone awake enough to shovel their sidewalks, so the paths were still covered by a few inches of snow. The sight gave him an idea, and when Levi turned to him, presumably to say goodbye and part ways, Eren voiced it.

“Do you want a ride?” he asked, breath floating away in clouds of condensation as he talked. “I’ve got four-wheel drive, and the roads are cleared off better than the sidewalks. Then you won’t have to walk through all the snow. Plus, your hair is wet, and my mom always said that you’ll catch cold if you go outside with wet hair in the winter, and I don’t want you to get sick. It’s not like it’s really out of my way either, since you said you don’t live—”

“If I say yes, will you stop rambling?” Levi interrupted, eyebrow raised.

Eren looked away, embarrassed, before looking back at Levi. “So is that a yes?” Levi rolled his eyes instead of answering, walking past him to head towards his car. With Levi’s back turned to him, Eren fist-pumped excitedly before running to catch up with him, hurriedly unlocking the doors and sliding inside to start it up. The engine roared to life so Eren set about putting the heat on full blast to warm up the interior. The passenger door opened, and Levi climbed inside, taking a look around the car as he set his duffle bag on the floor.

“Glad to see you’re not one of those fuckers that hoards trash in their car,” he said, buckling his seatbelt.

“Ew, no, that’s gross.” Eren was proud to say that he kept his car relatively clean, save for a few stray receipts and straw wrappers in the cupholders or on the ground. His room on the other hand…not that it was that bad, but he’d definitely have to pick up a bit more if Levi came over. He buckled up as well, warming his hands on the vents momentarily before backing up and out of his parking space. “So, where to?” he asked, turning to the man beside him as he started pulling out of the parking lot.

“Take a left here, keep going till you hit the stop sign.” Eren followed the directions Levi gave, going farther and farther into the residential areas that surrounded the rec center until they were a couple blocks away, just like Levi had said. The man instructed him to pull to a stop in front of a small two-story house. Although Eren couldn’t tell much about it, since it was covered in a layer of snow, it looked nice and relatively new, a navy exterior with white trim that somehow suited Levi. Eren slowed to a stop, drumming his fingers on the wheel awkwardly as Levi unbuckled and grabbed his things.

“Your uh, your place looks really nice.” He wanted to facepalm himself for making small talk, but he didn’t want Levi to leave just yet.

“Thanks,” he replied, opening the passenger door and letting himself out. “Maybe you could come over and see the inside sometime.” Holy shit, did Levi just insinuate he’d want him to come over? This morning just kept getting better and better.

“Yeah, that’d…that’d be great.” In fact, it’d be more than great. Amazing. Stupendous. The best damn idea Eren had ever heard. They both stood there for a second, unsure of what to say. Levi was letting all the cold air in holding the door open, but Eren couldn’t find it in himself to care, content to be cold if it meant he could stay here just a little bit longer. Levi finally broke the ice.

“Thanks again for the ride. I’ll see you around, Eren.”

“See you later, Levi.” And with that, Levi slammed his door shut, trudging through the snow up to his house. Eren stayed for a moment to make sure he made it inside okay before pulling away, heading back to his apartment.

Armin was waiting for him expectantly when he finally made it home. Eren gave him the rundown of everything that transpired, accented with lots of laughter and blushing, Armin frequently saying ‘I told you so.’ They gossiped and teased each other for the rest of the morning, Armin eventually revealing that he did indeed have a thing going with the girl from his Pharmacology class, which then it was Eren’s turn to say, ‘I told you so.’ Eventually, they had to split and head to class—because of course their university wouldn’t cancel class due to snow—and the rest of the day went by without event. Later that night, Eren laid in bed and stared at his phone, looking at Levi’s contact information, still not really believing everything that happened.

***

A coffee was thrust into his hands as soon as he walked through the doors the next morning, the thruster being a very sorry looking Hanji. Eren took a tentative sip, appreciative of the unexpected caffeine boost, although wary as to why exactly Hanji had brought him apology coffee, one that to his surprise was exactly what he usually ordered. How did Hanji know his coffee order? He pushed that question to the side in favor of asking a more pertinent one.

“Thanks Hanji, but uh, why?” Was this about her fight with Levi on Monday? Although that didn’t really make much sense, an apology would be better directed at Levi for that.

“I’m so sorry about yesterday, Eren!” she gushed. “Admin just kept dragging their feet about making a decision, even though I knew none of them wanted to haul their asses into work in all that snow. I wish I could’ve let you know before you drove all the way here, especially with how bad the roads were. By the time they figured their shit out, you were already here. God, they piss me off sometimes. Damn bureaucrats.” Oh right, that. With everything good that happened yesterday, he’d almost forgotten the predicament that got him there in the first place.

He sidestepped Hanji to drop his stuff in the guard office, his boss following him in after. “It’s not your fault, and really, it wasn’t a big deal. My car can handle the roads just fine. I’m more just mad that I missed my chance to sleep in for once,” he joked, trying to convey that it wasn’t as big a problem as his boss seemed to think it was. If anything, he should be thanking her, which reminded him, he should probably tell Hanji about what happened. Better to come clean right from the beginning than have her find out he kept a patron in the pool after hours and kept it from her, even if that patron was Levi. “Uhm, actually Hanji, by the time you texted me, Levi had shown up and started swimming laps, so I just let him finish before closing the pool up. Sorry. I know that’s usually against the rules, but I didn’t want to kick him out after he just got here, especially with all the snow. I figured I should let you know.” Hanji scrutinized him, hands on her hips and leaning in close. “It was all my idea,” he added, making sure to take all the blame. “Levi tried to leave when I told him you said we were closing, so if I’m in trouble, I’ll take whatever punishment you give.”

Hanji narrowed her eyes before suddenly standing up straight, hands still planted on her hips. “Huh. I can’t believe he actually came. I thought he was still pissed off.”

“Levi?” Eren found it strange that out of everything he said, Hanji fixated on the man. “I mean, he did mention something about asking you if the pool was open.”

“Well when he asked, we _were_ still open, but he’s been in a funk, so I didn’t think he’d show. Interesting. Very interesting,” she said, dragging out the word and nodding to herself. Her hands moved to cross in front of her as her eyes again stared into Eren’s own. He felt like he was being interrogated. “Did he say anything else? Did he talk to you?”

“Oh, I mean, yeah, we talked.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out if he should say more. He didn’t really want to tell his boss about his romantic life—even though he and Hanji were friendly and had a good work relationship, it was still a little embarrassing and personal to discuss. Then again, Hanji had never been one to shy away from the personal. Besides, she was Levi’s friend and had been for a long time, so either Levi would tell her, or she’d find out one way or another eventually. Eren took a deep breath, bracing himself for what he was about to admit. “I told him I liked him, and he asked me out.”

Hanji stared at him for a second as if still absorbing the information. “Oh my god,” she whispered conspiratorially before throwing her arms up. “Oh my god! It worked! I didn’t think it’d work, and definitely not this well!” she screeched, pacing around the office and grabbing at her hair in disbelief before coming to a stop in front of Eren and clasping her hands on his shoulders. “Eren, as my employee, I will spare you, but I want you to know that I will be grilling Levi about this, and I will not rest until I make him tell me every detail.”

He should’ve figured this would happen. “Thanks? But uh, what do you mean ‘it worked’?” Had she said something to Levi?

“Well, it’s actually a couple things.” Hanji dropped her hands from his shoulders, using them to instead adjust her glasses. “He’ll probably kill me for telling you this, but Levi’d been interested in you for a while. But shortstack wouldn’t come clean about it, so I decided he needed a little push in the form of me terrorizing him on Monday,” she cackled at the memory. “But we both know how that went. Then yesterday came around and gave me a second chance. I figured we would close, but I went ahead and told him we were open, which wasn’t technically a lie, since like I said, we _were_ open. You were the only one working, and I knew most patrons wouldn’t show, sooo I figured if he would go, it was the perfect opportunity for you two to talk. Levi might act confident, but he’s secretly a big worrywart—I hoped if there weren’t other people around, he’d open up a bit more. But man oh man, I didn’t think all this would happen!” Hanji resumed pacing around the office, muttering to herself about the ways she’d drag information out of Levi later that day. Eren had never expected his boss of all people to have been his wingman.

“So I’m not in trouble?” Hanji didn’t seem upset by the revelation—on the contrary, she seemed ecstatic—but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t face consequences later when her good mood cooled off.

“No, no, you’re fine,” she said, stopping in her tracks momentarily to wave him off. “Like you said, technically you should have kicked Levi out, but I’m not heartless. There wasn’t a point in either of you rushing out of here with all that snow. Blah, blah, extenuating circumstances, blah. You’re fine, Eren. And if the rec administration complains, I’ll tell them it’s their fault for not making a decision quicker.” Eren let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He’d told Levi he didn’t think he’d get in trouble, but it was good to know for sure that Hanji would cover for him.

“Ok cool, thanks Hanji.” There was something else that had been on his mind this week, and his boss had reminded him of what it was. “What exactly happened on Monday? I mean, I was there, but I don’t get what Levi was so upset about. I’d never seen him so pissed off.”

“Wait, he didn’t tell you?” Eren shook his head and Hanji’s eyes nearly popped from her sockets, her pacing resuming at an even more frantic speed. “Jesus Levi, you’re killing me! I swear, do I have to knock some sense into him? I can’t believe he didn’t tell you. Especially since it was you!” She came to a stop once more in front of him, expression suddenly serious. “You really should be asking Levi about this. All I’ll say is that he was mad at me because he thought I was freaking you out,” she snorted out a laugh. “I’ve known you longer than he has—I think I’d know if I was making you uncomfortable.” Well, that at least kind of explained things, but as for what exactly Hanji meant, it seemed he’d only find out from Levi. If anything it at least explained why he came and checked on Eren after talking to Hanji. He wanted to ask his boss more, but as soon as he opened his mouth, she interrupted. “Oh shit, looks like we lost track of time. Gotta go let the patrons in. Guess we’ll just have to scrub at the end of the shift.”

Hanji snatched the key off the table and bounded out the door towards the locker rooms, Eren trailing behind her. It didn’t seem like he’d get any more information out of her, but at least he wasn’t in trouble either. Looks like he’ll have to ask Levi, hopefully in a way that wasn’t too awkward. Eren was happy that they were able to go back to their usual banter after yesterday, so the last thing he wanted was for things to become weird between them once again. The rest of their shift was slow—not as many patrons came as usual due to the snow still lingering, so there wasn’t a lot to watch when Eren was on stand—and ended with them scrubbing the deck like Hanji said, which left Eren sweaty and gross, slightly souring his mood. He perked back up a bit once he was in his car, finally having the chance to check his phone and finding a text from Levi. It was short and to the point, much like the man himself, but the sight of those words made him happy. 

_There’s a café in town I go to sometimes. If you’re free this weekend, we could meet for coffee._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaannnndddd it's a date! Hanji gives a little insight to Levi's moodiness, but all will be revealed soon ;) 
> 
> posting this a little earlier than usual since I'll be driving most of the day tomorrow to go visit my boyfriend! Very excited to see him ^^
> 
> Thank you all again for all the love you've showed this piece!! I appreciate all of you so so much !!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backstories and Bisous

Eren was only slightly regretting his decision to walk to the coffee shop. It was a deceptively sunny day, not a cloud in sight, and if it wasn’t for the sudden gusts of wind, it would have been pleasant. It wasn’t that chilly either, except of course when the wind decided to smack him upside the face and drop the temperature by ten degrees. God, his hair was going to be a disaster by the time he got there. He buried his face in the neck of his winter coat and picked up the pace—he wasn’t late by any means, but the sooner he got there, the less time he had to spend outside. They’d decided to meet Sunday afternoon: Levi didn’t have work and Eren didn’t have class, so it worked out well. It turned out that the café Levi suggested wasn’t far from his apartment, hence Eren’s decision to walk, originally thinking it’d be easier to not have to mess with parking in an unfamiliar place. Although the snow hadn’t quite melted yet, the sidewalks were clear, and he was grateful he didn’t have to stomp through slush the whole way there. Speaking of there, the building appeared ahead, Wall Rose emblazoned across the front, a pretty brick building with plenty of windows, and from the looks of the crowded streets around it, Eren was glad he walked.

He paused outside to wipe his feet on the mat before pulling the door open, a welcome blast of warm air hitting him as soon as he stepped in. Eren unzipped his coat while scanning the café for Levi, finding the man at a corner table near the back reading something off of his phone, and headed over to him. His date—date: he still could hardly believe it, Levi was really here on a date with him—was wearing jeans and a black turtleneck, the sleeves pushed up and showing off his forearms, and geez, did Levi have to look good in everything he wore? Eren had on a dark green sweater and black jeans, and even though it was a relatively simple outfit, he’d fretted over it more than necessary and asked Armin’s opinion on it almost a dozen times before his roommate finally shoved him out the door. Levi looked up as Eren approached, locking his phone and pocketing it when Eren slid into the seat across from him.

“Am I late or are you just early?” Eren slipped the coat from his shoulders and onto the chair behind him, fixing Levi with a crooked smile. He hadn’t though he was late, and god, he really didn’t want to be. Talk about a bad first impression.

Levi glanced down at the watch on his wrist. “We’re both early.” Looking back up at Eren, he said, “You look cold. Did you walk?”

“Yeah, this place isn’t far from my apartment, so I just hoofed it. How’d you know? Is my hair fucked?” He ran a hand through the strands, trying to detangle the worst of it. He’d worn it down for the date, but maybe he should’ve put it up to avoid it looking like a rats nest from the wind.

“Your ears are bright red. Wear a hat next time,” he took a sip from the mug in front of him before amending his previous statement. “Or don’t. You’re an adult and I’m not your mother.” Another pause before Levi cleared his throat awkwardly, “Your hair looks fine. Nice. It looks nice.” Well this certainly was a change from the usual calm and collected Levi Eren was used to, not that he was complaining. If anything, it was reassuring to know he wasn’t the only one nervous for their first date, despite how many times they’d talked to each other in the past months.

The compliment made Eren snort. “Well thanks, _Mom._ You look nice too. I will say, in my defense, it didn’t look cold outside, so I didn’t think I’d need one.”

“That doesn’t even make sense. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say your brain froze too,” Levi replied with a smirk before nodding his head in the direction of the baristas. “Maybe something hot will thaw you out.” The only hot thing Eren needed was sitting right in front of him, but a coffee sounded good too.

“Oh fuck off, that totally made sense. But I suppose I should go get a coffee for our coffee date.” He pushed back from the table with a grin, walking over towards the counter on the other side of the room. Eren studied the decorative menu hanging on the wall, its board crammed with so many different drinks it was almost hard to read. Everything sounded fancy, or at least fancier than he was used to—most of his coffee was whatever was biggest and cheapest at Dunkin, not used to doppios and macchiatos and affogatos, whatever that meant. He finally found the latte section, a safe choice, and perused his options there before finally settling on a salted honey latte. He wanted to be a little bougie on his date, so sue him. He placed his order and paid the barista, moving down the counter to go wait for his fancy drink. Eren gave a cursory look around the place as he waited, too busy trying to find Levi when he first came in to pay the café much attention. It was modern and sleek but cozy, light from the large windows brightening up the dark grey walls that held artwork for sale, lots of tables and a few couches scattered here and there, not too crowded but welcoming feeling. Although he was initially surprised that Levi asked him to a coffee shop of all places, after looking around, he could see why the man liked the place.

Speaking of Levi, Eren peered over his shoulder at him, taking the time to study him while he wasn’t paying attention. His head was propped on one hand, the other lazily gripping the rim of the mug he had earlier, appearing to look around the café like Eren was doing moments ago. The angle gave him a good view of Levi’s profile, and while Eren was busy appreciating the cut of the man’s jawline, grey eyes slid over and caught green ones, a small smile quirking on Levi’s lips before he hid it behind his mug. The barista called out his order, giving Eren an excuse to turn away. His drink looked good, but god, did they have to fill it almost to overflowing? He lightly gripped the saucer and slowly made his way back to the table, trying his best to balance it and not spill. He set it down on the table carefully, thankful he made it back with minimal spillage, and slid back into his chair.

“Sooo…” Eren began, blowing on his drink to cool it off. “Why this place? You said you come here a lot, but you’ve also made it pretty clear you hate coffee.”

Levi jerked a thumb at the tea pot to the left of him that Eren hadn’t noticed. “Coffee is shit, but I enjoy tea. This place is one of the few around here that sells tea leaves and has a good variety. I like their blends. Plus, unlike most other shitty places, they actually know how to brew a cup that doesn’t taste like piss.” The comment caught Eren off guard, and he had to fight to not snort coffee out his nose from laughing.

“Oh, gotcha. So what kind is that?” He nodded his head at Levi’s mug.

“This,” Levi swirled the contents of his cup around a few times with an easy roll of his wrist, “is called Russian Caravan. It’s oolong, keemun, and lapsang souchong.” Eren craned his neck to look inside the cup, but all he saw was a brown liquid that looked like any other tea to him. He thought such fancy sounding tea would look a little fancier.

“I’m gonna pretend I know what those words mean. What’s it taste like?” To him, it’d probably just taste like tea, but he assumed Levi had a more refined palette than he did when it came to hot leaf juice.

Levi hummed, thinking for a moment before replying. “They’re just different tea names. I’d say it tastes like a black tea, but more aromatic, smoky, and a little bit sweet. That answer your question?” Eren had no clue what black tea tasted like, but nodded along like he did anyways. “What’d you get?”

“Uh, something Honey Latte? Already forgot what it’s called. Never tried it before, but it’s pretty good. Sweet, honey-y.” He sipped on his drink, trying to come up with some conversation topics to fill the rapidly approaching awkward silence. “So, uh, how was your weekend? Or is, I guess, since it’s still Sunday.

“Same old, same old. Shoveled all that fucking snow off my driveway, cleaned my house, looked over some case files for work, got dragged out for drinks with the idiots I call friends. That’s pretty much it.” Friends huh? Eren was always curious about who Levi hung out with. Obviously, he knew Hanji, but he never mentioned anyone else before.

“Wait, Levi, you have friends?” He teased, which earned him a half-hearted kick under the table that Eren felt was deserved. “Ok, ok, I’m joking. So who’d you go with? Was it Hanji?”

“God, I know more people than shitty four eyes. I’m not that much of a hermit. Hanji was there, yes, but I also went with Moblit, Erwin, Mike, and Mike’s wife Nanaba.” Those names sounded familiar, but it took him a second before he realized where he’d heard them before.

Eren leaned forward in his chair in surprise. “Wait, Erwin Smith? Like Director of Parks and Recreation Erwin? And Mike and Nanaba Zacharias, as in the Recreation Superintendent and Athletics Director? Do you know everyone from my work?”

“Yeah, that’s them. Hanji and I went to high school with Erwin—eyebrows is the one who dragged me onto the swim team.” The nickname made Eren snort. He’d only met Erwin Smith a handful of times, but the moniker was indeed a fitting one. “They both moved here for work after college. I stayed in Trost for law school and worked up there for a bit before moving here earlier this year. They introduced me to their friends, which just so happen to be their coworkers.” He’d never realized that Levi hadn’t lived in Shiganshina the entire time, assuming that like him, the man had been here for a while. Now it made more sense why Levi showed up out of the blue one day a few months ago.

“I didn’t know you were from Trost. Why’d you move out here?” The larger city was about a three-hour drive from Shiganshina, so although it wasn’t a cross-country move, it was quite a bit away. Eren had visited a handful of times for swim meets, but hadn’t had the chance to really explore the city—then again, given its reputation, he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to. Most of Trost was fine, like the bustling business districts and more touristy areas, but certain parts were known for high crime rates and even rumored gang activity.

Levi poured himself another mug of tea from the pot, steam billowing up as the liquid flowed out. “Place was a shithole. Why wouldn’t I leave?” He blew the vapor away and took a sip from the cup before continuing. “Mostly I hated the law firm I worked for. Greedy fuckers only cared about making money, not helping people. After a couple of years, I couldn’t stand being there, and glasses and eyebrows suggested I move out here, so I did. Found a better firm, bought a house, and the rest is history.”

“Huh. I’ve lived here almost my whole life, so it’s hard to imagine moving. Do you ever miss Trost?” At times when he was younger, angrier, more rebellious, Eren did want to leave his hometown. Go explore the world, see more than the confines of Shiganshina, and as he grew up, he did just that. But the more he traveled, the more he realized he liked having a home to return to, one that held his friends and his family, and that he knew like the back of his hand. A sort of safety net, a home base, a place he could always return to and know he’d be welcomed with open arms.

“There’s nothing there worth missing anymore,” Levi replied, staring hard into his tea. After a tense moment, he looked back up. “Sorry, that sounded fucking depressing.” To Eren that seemed like putting it lightly. Obviously, there seemed to be a lot to unpack there, but it was a question for another time. Levi didn’t seem like he wanted to go in depth right now. “So how was yours?”

The sudden change in direction threw Eren for a loop. “Uh, my what?”

“Your weekend, genius. Go to any wild frat parties or whatever college kids do?” He questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Ha, I wish,” Eren huffed out. “It’s getting closer to the end of the semester, so my professors have been pilling on the homework. I spent almost all day yesterday studying with Armin, albeit with a couple of beers.”

“And you say I don’t have any friends. All I ever hear you talk about is your roommate.” The accusation made Eren splutter in indignation.

“I have friends! I just see Armin the most. A lot of my friends already graduated and got jobs, so I don’t hang out with them as much, and our other best friend, Mikasa, has been gone, but she’s coming home pretty soon. I’m friends with a bunch of my coworkers too, like Sasha and Connie, and Historia and her girlfriend Ymir. So there,” he said and stuck his tongue out at the man, which earned him a chuckle.

“Ok brat, good to know you’re not a total loser.” Eren flipped Levi off with a pointed look as he took another drink of his latte.

“Hey, you’re the one that asked this loser on a date.”

Levi propped his head up on an elbow, answering “I guess I did.” The look he shot Eren seemed almost fond, too much emotion swimming in those silvery eyes. It made Eren blush, so he took another sip from his drink, trying to use the cup to cover how red his face was, a tactic that wouldn’t work for him much longer since he was close to polishing off his latte. He tried to think of a way to divert the conversation somewhere else, wracking his brain for a question he could ask the man. A question… which reminded him of when he last spoke to Hanji. Her answer had been vague, and left Eren with more questions than answers, and she did say to ask Levi himself if he wanted to find out what was going on with the man. Things seemed to have smoothed over since that Monday, especially with the two of them confessing their feelings, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?

Eren put his mug back on the saucer with a small clink. “Hey Levi, can I ask you a question?”

“Isn’t that the whole point of first dates?” He replied with a smirk. “Ask questions, get to know each other, make sure neither of us are serial killers? So yes, Eren, ask away.” Point taken. The asking to ask a question was a little redundant.

“So uh, what happened between you and Hanji on Monday? You seemed really upset, but I wasn’t sure why, and then you kind of, well, avoided me afterwards.” Levi leaned back in his chair and took a long drink from his mug, looking as though he was appraising Eren, but as for what or why, he wasn’t sure.

“Busting out the tough questions, huh?”

“Sorry, you don’t have to answer.” He scratched at the back of his neck and looked down. It was kind of hardball, and pretty quick off the bat too. He probably should have waited until at least a second date before asking—assuming and hoping that there would in fact be a second date. “I was just curious, and, well, a little concerned. I’d never seen you that angry and then you acted like nothing was wrong when you left, so I just want to make sure you’re okay about whatever it is that happened,” he said, looking up at the man through his lashes.

Levi heaved a sigh out his nose and rocked forward in his chair. “It’s fine. It was bound to come up anyways if this,” he paused to wave a hand between them in reference to their relationship, “is going to continue. What happened is, back when I kept dropping hints about being interested in you, and you kept ignoring them—”

“Hey, I was not ignoring you,” Eren interrupted, slightly miffed at the accusation.

“You wanted to know the answer, so no interrupting.” Levi held up a finger in warning then continued. “What I was trying to say is, I was attempting to be subtle about it. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable if it wasn’t reciprocated or come off as…creepy.” He pulled a disgusted face at the word.

“Ok, I know you just said no interrupting, but how would _you_ have been creepy?” Eren honestly didn’t get it. Levi had never been anything besides polite, minus the first few times they interacted, but creepy? He couldn’t picture it. Levi, on the other hand, seemed confused as to why Eren was confused and shot him an incredulous look, or as close to what counted as incredulous on the man’s perpetual resting bitch face.

“Eren, I’m almost 12 years older than you. How do you think most people would feel about a nearly 40-year-old trying to hit on a college student? And at your work, no less.” He grimaced. “God, now that I actually say it, it sounds worse than I thought.” Eren hadn’t really thought of it like that before—guess he wasn’t the only one a little insecure about themselves in the relationship.

“First of all, you’re 34. That is not ‘nearly 40.’ And second,” he laid his hand on top of Levi’s that rested on the table between them. “I don’t care. I like you, Levi. You are not a creep, so there’s no way you could be creepy. Even though you put on this asshole façade, you’re a very nice person.” The compliment made Levi roll his eyes, but the small smile on his face said he appreciated it.

“As I was saying before _someone_ interrupted me, I was being cautious. But Hanji thought I wasn’t being obvious enough and tried to wingman for me, but of course in the worst, most demented way possible and without telling me. She just barges in one morning screeching about how single and gay I am. God, if I hadn’t stopped her, who knows what else she would have done. I thought she was making it too obvious that I was into you, ruining all my effort to be subtle and scaring you off. Then I looked at you, and you looked like you were shitting a brick, which didn’t help things. I figured that whatever it was, it wasn’t good: either you weren’t interested in me like I thought you were, or I creeped you out and ruined my chances.” Levi heaved out another sigh and ran his hand over his face. “So I gave Hanji the chewing out of a lifetime and accepted she’d ruined whatever chance I had. That’s pretty much it.”

“Wait, that’s it? That’s why?” God, they really did have the worst communication sometimes. “I wasn’t uncomfortable or whatever you thought, I was internally panicking because I finally got confirmation that you were gay, single, and interested. I was trying not to combust,” he laughed. “God, I was so happy that day I almost couldn’t believe it.”

“Guess I owe shitty glasses an apology now.”

“That makes two of us,” Eren replied with a grin. If it wasn’t for his boss’s meddling, who knows where they’d be at right now. All the annoyance and miscommunication was worth it for him to end up where he was now. “If it makes you feel any better, I liked you pretty early on, I was just so shitty at flirting because I couldn’t understand why you were even interested in me.”

“Eren, I’m fucking 5’4 and middle aged. Don’t make it sound like I’m some sort of catch.” Were his ears deceiving him? Could Levi really think that little of himself?

“So? You’re handsome, you’re fucking ripped, like jesus, give me some gym tips. You’re smart and a successful lawyer, you own a house, you’ve got your shit together. Plus you’re funny and fun to be around. I’m a 6th year undergrad and failed D-1 athlete. It didn’t make sense why you’d like me.” Levi flipped his hand over underneath Eren’s, stroking one finger with his thumb.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. Besides, you’re pretty easy on the eyes.” And there he went with the compliments again, making Eren’s face a blushing mess. The atmosphere between them relaxed, and the two of them chatted for a while about less serious topics, trading jokes and stories and memories. Before their date, Eren was afraid it would be awkward talking to Levi outside of the pool, thinking the different setting would somehow change their dynamic, but conversation flowed just as easy as it always had. Time with Levi flew bye quicker than he wished it would and soon the man was looking at his watch.

“While I’d like to keep talking, we’ve been here a while and you should probably get back to studying.” Eren groaned, pushing his now empty mug back and slouching onto the table.

“Ugh, I hate that you’re right. Not looking forward to it though.” Levi poked at his arm until Eren’s head popped up.

“Oi, you were just complaining about how finals were going to kick your ass. Don’t be a lazy shit.” Of course he’d find no sympathy from Levi, the man who went through law school and all the constant studying that came with it. Eren groaned but sat back upright, pulling on his coat.

“Ok, ok, studying is important, I get it. Doesn’t mean I want to.” He stood and put his mug and saucer in the dish collector by the counter, turning back to Levi who was wiping off the table. He’d discarded his teapot and mug a while ago. Eren waited awkwardly for Levi to finish, unsure of how they were going to depart. “Speaking of not wanting to, I’m not looking forward to going back outside. Hopefully it’s not as cold as earlier,” he joked, trying to make small talk.

Levi righted himself and threw the napkin he’d been using in the nearby trashcan. “Do you want a ride?” The offer did sound appealing, but Eren didn’t want to inconvenience him.

“Oh thanks, but I don’t live far. It’s no big deal, I can walk.”

“Then it’s not like it’s out of my way. You gave me a ride the other day, let me repay you.” Levi slid his hands into his coat pockets, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Or don’t. I won’t force you.” It would spare him from the cold and give him a little more time with Levi. Screw it, why not?

“Ok sure,” he replied with a grin. “Thanks Levi.” The man didn’t reply, heading out of the door of the café, leaving Eren to jog after him. The cold air was a slap in the face after being in the warm building for so long, and it seemed like the wind had picked up and was blowing harder than it was earlier, making Eren immensely grateful for the ride. Levi looked both ways before crossing the street and walking towards a sleek black car, its lights flashing as he unlocked it and slid into the drivers side. Eren gave it an appreciative once over as he rounded the car to the passenger door—he didn’t know anything about cars, but even he could tell that this was a nicer one. The interior was absolutely spotless and looked almost like new, but that fact no longer surprised him, what with how fastidious Levi was about cleaning. “It’s pretty much just a straight shot to my place. Just follow this street for a couple blocks.” Levi nodded in response and pulled out of the parking spot, heading out onto the road. They sat in silence for a while, Levi focused on the road and Eren focused on staring out the window and figuring out what to say now.

“Hey, I uh, I had a really good time talking with you today,” he ventured, glancing sideways at the other man for a reaction.

“You say that like we don’t talk almost every day,” Levi retorted with a small smirk.

Eren rolled his eyes and punched him lightly. “You know what I mean, you jerk.”

“No punching the driver.” Levi punctuated his point by giving Eren a shove back. “And yes, I know what you mean. It was nice.”

“Oh, it’s those apartments up ahead.” He pointed as his block of buildings down the road. “You can just pull up and let me out.” Damn, the drive was a lot shorter than walking had been. Levi did as told and stopped at the curb by the building, Eren drumming his fingers on his legs in anticipation. He felt like today went well: there should have been nothing to be nervous about, but he couldn’t stop his heart hammering in his chest. “So uh, would you say it was nice enough of a date to have a second one?”

Levi hummed in thought and twisted in his seat to face him. “I have a policy of not dating people that punch me while I’m driving. But I guess I can make an exception just this once.”

“Ok, ok, no more punching while driving, even if it was barely a tap. I promise.” Eren turned in his seat as well, the center console the only thing separating them. Mirth shined in Levi’s eyes and the warm air from the vents blew his hair gently. Before he could talk himself out of it or overthink it, Eren closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to Levi’s. It was brief, lasting only for a moment despite how much he wanted to keep kissing the man, before he pulled away. “I’ll uh,” he licked his lips unconsciously. “I’ll text you about that second date then.”

Levi looked briefly surprised before he schooled his expression back into a more neutral one. “Sounds good. Bye Eren.”

“Bye Levi. Thanks again for the ride. See you tomorrow.” He opened the door and climbed out of the seat, stepping directly into a snow pile—he knew his soaked shoes and wet pants legs would bother him later, but for now all he could focus on was Levi.

“Yeah, see you then.” Eren shut the door and watched as the car pulled away, still staring after it long after it was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter was a day early and this one was a day late lol  
> I wanted to post this on time, but this week's been a busy one for me. Didn't have much time to write, and when I did, I kind of struggled with this chapter. I was finally able to get it to where I was satisfied with it, and just finished writing as of a few minutes ago, so this one's hot off the presses! Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting consistently in the future, but apologies if I'm sometimes late. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed their first date!!! And the smol kiss ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Sssoooooooo much love to everyone who's been reading / kudo-ing / commenting / bookmarking!!!! I appreciate each and every one of you guys so much!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calls and Texts

After a few moments of staring after Levi's long gone car, the wind got to Eren enough that he finally headed back inside his apartment. He took the stairs two at a time, only a little bit out of breath by the time he reached the top, and swung the door open, not bothering with keys since he knew Armin would be home. Stepping inside, he found his roommate sitting at the table studying, looking exactly like he did a few hours ago when Eren left.

Armin didn’t look up when the door shut. “So how was it?” When Eren didn’t answer, he finally turned his head, staring at Eren who hadn’t moved from the entryway. A worried frown etched itself between Armin’s eyebrows at his continued silence. “Eren? Did your date go okay?” That finally got Eren to look up from where he’d been staring off into space.

“I kissed him, Armin.” His roommate sighed in relief, snatching up a pencil and throwing it vaguely in Eren’s direction.

“God, you scared me, you asshole!” He broke out into a grin. “So I’m taking it went well then?” Eren walked over and flopped on the couch, not bothering to take off his shoes or coat.

“It was great. There was a moment where I thought I fucked it up by interrogating him, but thankfully Levi’s not put off by me being pushy, for whatever reason.”

“At least not yet,” Armin snorted. Eren sat upright, ready to defend himself, but Armin was quicker to placate. “Relax, you know I’m joking. What else happened?”

Eren collapsed backwards on the couch again, gazing up at the ceiling fan. “Nothing much, we just talked like we normally do. I was worried it’d be weird seeing him outside the pool, but it was fine. Great even. We stayed there for longer than I thought we would, but it’s not like I’m complaining, and then he gave me a ride home. I kissed him as he dropped me off.” He could still faintly feel the press of Levi’s lips on his own. He wanted to feel it over and over again.

“Sounds like you had a good time.” Eren hummed in agreement—it really had been a good time. His date only ended a few minutes ago, but he was already looking forward to the next one. “Did you tell Mikasa about it?” He stiffened slightly at the mention of their friend. It wasn’t like he purposely hadn’t told her; it just sort of slipped his mind with the craziness of the last few days. Besides, there wasn’t anything going on between him and Levi until Thursday, no matter how much he had wanted there to be prior to that, so there didn’t seem to be a point to mentioning the man to her.

“Have you told her about Annie?” he retorted.

Another pencil came sailing over the back of the couch. “Hey, you’re deflecting, and you know it.” Which was true, he was indeed deflecting and knew it. “And for your information, yes, I told her.” Damn, Armin got him, now there really was no excuse.

“Ok, ok, I’ll text her,” he conceded, hauling himself up from the couch. He slipped his shoes off by the door and hung up his coat before retreating into his room. Pulling out his phone, he brought up Mikasa’s contact info and shot her a quick message.

_Guess who went on a date today :)_

He set the phone down on his dresser, not expecting to get a response anytime soon and more intent on changing into sweatpants. Mikasa’s training schedule was strict, packed, and varied, meaning he never really knew when she would have free time or be at some form of practice. Though he himself had never gone to any camps of that length or caliber, the ones he attended usually didn’t allow for much free time besides meals and sleep. Eren stripped off his sweater and kicked off his jeans, rummaging around in his drawers to find something else to wear. He was tugging on a t-shirt when he heard his phone vibrate, grasping at it haphazardly and swiping to answer without looking at the ID. He shoved it against his shoulder while he tried to put on sweatpants.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Figured it’d be easier to call you than text back and forth,” the smooth voice on the other end greeted him. Eren finished tugging his sweats on and sat on the bed.

“Oh hey, Mika. I would’ve called you first, but I didn’t know when or if you’d be free. How’s training going?”

“I had a rest day today, so I only had yoga this morning. Training’s the same as usual: kicking my ass. I did shave 3 seconds off my 100 fly the other day, so I guess it’s working,” she replied, a slightly humorous tone coloring her voice. God, sometimes he forgot how much of a machine she was in the pool.

“Well damn, congrats! Ledecky better watch herself at the next prelims.” He could almost feel Mikasa’s eyeroll.

“Enough swim talk. Tell me about your date that I wasn’t told about.” Straight and to the point as always; he wasn’t sure why he expected anything else from her at this point.

Eren scrubbed a hand over his face. “In my defense, this all only happened on Thursday, so it’s not like I’ve been hiding it from you or anything.” Mikasa had grown out of the clingy and overprotective phase she’d had growing up, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still fiercely loyal. In the past, her incessant questions and nagging had sometimes annoyed him, but as he grew up, he realized she was just trying to show she cared.

“I’m teasing. But seriously, how was it? Tell me about the guy.”

“We actually met at the pool. Which, ha, figures.” His whole life had been wrapped up in swimming—of course he was bound to meet a potential boyfriend through it. “He started coming to morning swim a few months ago and eventually we started talking. I’ve actually liked him for a while, so I was pretty excited when he asked me out. His name’s Levi and we—”

“Wait, Levi? What’s his last name?” She interrupted, which was Eren’s first clue that something was up. Mikasa never interrupted people unless it was something important.

“Uh, I’m actually not sure. I don’t think I ever asked.” The man had never supplied it and it never came up in conversation, and it had never occurred to him up until then to actually ask for Levi’s last name. Eren was usually a shoot first, ask questions later kind of person, so minor details like that were often lost in the crossfire.

Mikasa groaned on the other end. “I’ll spare you the lecture about dating safety, just make sure the next time you go on a date, you know their full name. Anyways, describe him. I think I know him.”

“Wait really?” Now that he thought about it, they seemed to have similar personalities, but he couldn’t figure how their paths would have crossed. Levi was older and lived in a different city until recently, so he thought it was doubtful, but then again, Mikasa sounded relatively adamant that she knew him. “Okay, he’s got black hair in like an undercut, he works out a lot so he’s pretty built, but uh, he’s a little on the shorter side.”

“Acts like an asshole sometimes?” And bingo.

“Okay, yes, but only at first. He softens up when you get to know him.” He couldn’t completely deny that point considering their first couple of interactions. “Which, speaking of, how _do_ you know him?”

“He’s my cousin. Or at least I’m pretty sure that’s him. Hang on, I think I’ve got a picture with him.” Now that she said it, Eren could see it. The dark hair, the athleticism, the sometimes-abrasive personalities were something they shared, and although they weren’t identical, they did resemble each other.

“Well damn. Small world. How come you never mentioned him before?” he asked, relaxing further onto the bed.

“I’ve talked about him before, but I don’t see him very often, only at Christmas every few years. He’s like my second cousin, I think. Our parents are cousins on my dad’s side. Here, I found a photo,” she said, the image popping up in a message on his phone only moments later. It was a group photo of Mikasa’s family, Eren easily recognizing her and her parents. The photo must have been a couple years old since Mikasa still had her long hair, placing the photo at least to freshman year of college at the latest. And yep, there was Levi, standing off to the right of the picture amongst people Eren didn’t recognize, wearing a sweater and looking exactly as he did now.

“Yeah, that’s definitely the same Levi.” How come Levi had never mentioned it before? He remembered talking about Mikasa a handful of times around him, but the man hadn’t said anything about knowing her. Eren made a mental note to ask Levi about it the next time he saw him.

“I’m surprised you met him. I thought he was living in Trost?”

“He mentioned growing up and going to school there, but he said he moved here a few months ago.” The line was quiet for a moment, which knowing Mikasa, was either par for the course or a sign that something bad was about to happen. Eren hoped it was the former. It was quite a bit to take in, so he couldn’t blame her for whatever it was she was thinking or feeling. “So uh, what do you think?”

There was another pause on her end, as if Mikasa was mulling over the words. “What do you mean?”

Eren ran a hand through his hair in thought. “Well, I mean, like, is this weird for you? Are you mad? Or just what are you feeling? I can’t read your mind, or body language, over the phone.” That earned him a snort.

“I mean, it’s a weird coincidence, but I don’t know why you think it would bother me. It’s not like he’s my brother. Levi’s a decent guy, better than some others you’ve dated at least,” Eren interjected a ‘hey,’ but she continued. “I don’t know what you see in him, but he could be worse, so as long as he makes you happy, I’m happy. Just know if he breaks your heart, I _will_ kick his ass, family or not.” The sentiment made him smile. Mikasa could be a hard ass sometimes, so he was thankful that she at least didn’t hate his date.

“Thanks Mika, I appreciate it.”

“Of course. Now tell me how your date went.” They chatted on the phone for a while, Eren discussing his date, Mikasa talking about her training camp, the both of them joking and swapping stories from when they were younger. Apparently Mikasa’s training was coming to an end and in about a week she’d be coming back home. Eren made a mental note to tell Armin about it and plan some sort of get together, just the three of them, when she came back. After talking for a time, they said their goodbyes and hung up. Eren rose from his place on the bed and stretched, figuring he should go join Armin for a study sesh like he told Levi he would.

***

Eren woke up with a little more spring in his step than usual. Even though it was ass o’clock in the morning, it was Monday and he had work, meaning he’d get to see Levi again. He knew it was a little childish—he’d quite literally just seen him yesterday—but it was the first time he would see him after their date and the idea of seeing him sent him flying through his morning routine. He was out the door early, affording him extra time to stop and get coffee on his way into work. He was in such a good mood that he even bought Sasha one, which she graciously accepted as he stepped through the door.

“Not that I’m not appreciative of it, but you seem suspiciously happy today considering what happened.” Eren raised an eyebrow at her as he sipped at his own coffee, not really following what she was trying to insinuate. “On Thursday I mean,” she clarified. “Must’ve sucked ass being stuck here by yourself. I would’ve come in for Connie, but I was out at my parent’s farm and none of the country roads had been plowed yet.” The aftermath and following days were positive, so Eren had kind of already forgotten all the original downsides of Thursday.

“It wasn’t that bad. Rec ended up delaying opening and I left not long after, so it’s not like I was stuck there for forever, and I wasn’t by myse—" He cut himself off before he could mention that he wasn’t actually alone at the pool. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Sasha to know, he just knew that if she found out about him and Levi, she’d never let him live it down, not that he could really blame her. She was the one that called Levi liking him all those weeks ago after all, even though Eren tried to deny it at the time. He knew she’d be ecstatic to know, but he couldn’t deal with that level of energy this early in the morning.

Although he’d tried to cut his sentence there, Sasha still noticed it. “Wait, did someone show up? I thought Connie couldn’t come in.” Maybe he could still get her to drop the subject since she hadn’t quite caught on yet.

“No, it was just me working. C’mon, we’ve got to disinfect the chairs today.” Eren grabbed the key to the cleaning closet and headed out of the office, trusting Sasha to follow behind him and hoping that would be the end of the conversation, but again, no such luck.

“So did one of the patrons show up?” He could hear her jogging behind him to catch up with his long strides. “God, was it Pixis again?” Eren unlocked the closet without responding, going in to grab the both of them a bottle of disinfectant and rags. He tossed Sasha hers as she prattled on. “Oh, or was it Shadis? I think he’d be the worst to get stuck with. He’d probably be a stubborn bastard and refuse to leave even if we closed.”

“No Sash, they didn’t show up,” he replied, which wasn’t exactly a lie—neither of them showed up, but someone else had. He pushed past her and began spraying down a white plastic chair then wiped it clean, Sasha following suit at the opposite end of the line of chairs. They worked in silence for a bit, moving towards each other in the center as they finished up their tasks. He thought he’d finally put an end to the conversation until Sasha spoke from just a chair away.

“I bet you wished Levi had shown up though, huh?” she joked with a waggle of her eyebrows. Eren’s hand stilled mid-wipe on the chair before resuming, but not before Sasha caught the movement. “Wait, really? Like really really? Did he?” Maybe he could still salvage any peace he’d hoped of having if he pretended not to hear her. God, he sounded like Levi dealing with Hanji. Eren grabbed his spray and rag and briskly walked over to the tables and chairs at the other end of the pool.

But Sasha was not one to be so easily thrown off. “You’re not denying it!” she called out. He could hear her footsteps rapidly approaching behind him. Eren righted himself from where he was bent over a table, turning to see Sasha behind him with her arms crossed. “Eren, either you can just fess up right now or I’ll keep bugging you about it all shift until you tell me. And don’t think I won’t ask Levi about it.” Ah fuck. She really had gotten him.

“Alright, alright Sash. Just promise me you won’t make a big deal out of this.”

She crossed over her heart before holding up a hand in a salute. “Scout’s honor. As long as you tell me _everything.”_ Sasha was typically kind and easy going, so he kind of forgot how relentless she could be when she wanted something, which in this case was gossip about his love life.

“Ok, fine. Just clean while you listen, we’ve got to open soon.” Once she nodded her assent and resumed spraying down a chair, he continued. “So Levi showed up not long after I got there. Hanji texted me saying they delayed opening and I could leave, so I just let him stay and swim. Then we started talking and I ended up swimming some laps too, then one thing lead to another and he asked me out.”

“I fucking knew it!” she cried, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction. “I told you he liked you, but you said I was reading too much into it.” She really had called it early on—now if only he’d listened to her sooner.

Eren tipped his head back with a groan. “Yeah, yeah, you told me so, you were right, your gaydar is impeccable. Anyways, he asked me out, and yesterday we went and got coffee together. It went really well, and I had a lot of fun,” he finished with a grin. He heard the dull thunk as Sasha dropped her spray bottle and then her arms were wrapped around him in a crushing hug.

“Congrats Eren! I’m really happy for you!” He awkwardly patted her on the back before she released him, face beaming up at him.

“Thanks Sash, I’m, well, I’m really happy, honestly. I like Levi a lot, but uh, you probably already knew that.”

“That’s great, really Eren. I’m glad to hear it. You guys should double date with me and Connie sometime!” Although he liked Sasha’s enthusiasm, he wasn’t sure Levi would feel the same.

“Oh uh,” he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, stumbling over noncommittal words. “Yeah, I’ll see what Levi thinks.” The answer was almost guaranteed to be a no, not that he could blame him—Levi didn’t seem like the type to do double dates, much less ones with his notoriously rambunctious friends. Nevertheless, she seemed happy with his answer and they chatted more about how his date went as they finished up cleaning. Soon they were opening the pool, and although Sasha offered to go up first, Eren declined, wanting to be on stand when Levi came in so he could talk to him.

A handful of patrons came in once they opened the doors, the regular crowd of early morning lap swimmers, and Eren watched over them in anticipation, waiting for that door to swing open again and for Levi to walk in. He counted down the minutes as he scanned the water, leg jiggling and fingers tapping in anticipation, but before he knew it, the time Levi usually appeared came and went. Eren did a double take at the clock, making sure that yep, it was about five minutes past when the man normally arrived. Huh. It was out of the ordinary for Levi to be late, but, he supposed, it wasn’t completely impossible. Maybe he’d overslept. Or had errands to run. Or was in a terrible car accident. Eren shook his head to clear away that thought—he was being irrational. Besides, Levi walked to the rec; how would he have been in a car accident? Maybe he’d made the wrong decision in kissing Levi and had scared him off. He waved that thought off as well. Levi was too straightforward and would’ve told him if he didn’t like it. This doom and gloom thought process would get him nowhere besides more anxious. He tried to focus his thoughts on anything else and resolved to text him as soon as he was off stand to get to the bottom of it.

Thankfully Sasha came relatively quickly to rotate him out. She took a look around the pool as Eren clamored down the ladder. “Wait, where’s your boyfriend? He’s not here.” He nearly slipped off the steps in embarrassment, face turning bright red at the label.

“Sasha!” he burst out, whipping his head around to make sure that Levi hadn’t suddenly appeared, before trying again quieter. “Sash, he’s not my boyfriend! We’ve only gone on one date.”

“Potato, potatoh. Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m going to go text him.” And with that he stalked off towards the guard office. Eren was a mixture of concerned and let down. It really wasn’t a big deal, but he’d been looking forward to seeing Levi all morning, so to have him pull a no show was a little disappointing. He grabbed his phone to send him a message, but Levi had already beaten him to the punch.

_I’m not coming to the pool this morning. Boss needed me in early to work on a case._

Well, at least he wasn’t in a car accident. He felt relieved that Levi was safe, but still disappointed he wouldn’t be seeing the man at all today. Eren plopped down in a chair and wrote his response.

_Booooo. I was looking forward to seeing you today :(_

He sat his phone back down and went to grab some homework from his backpack, not expecting a reply any time soon. To his surprise, his phone buzzed with a message not even five minutes later.

 _I meant to tell you yesterday, but somebody distracted me when I was dropping you off_.

Eren snorted at the response. Looks like he had nothing to worry about regarding the kiss either. He was typing out a reply when another text suddenly came through.

_How about I make it up to you? Dinner this weekend?_

_Hey, you weren’t complaining. And sure, dinner sounds great :)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liiiiiiivvvvveeeeeee !!!!!  
> Also holy shit this is chapter 10??? Never would have thought I would ever write something this long, but here we are lmao 
> 
> Sorry about the mini hiatus last week! I had a terrible case of writers block and was having trouble with everything I was trying to put down. I decided to take a short break from writing rather than try to force something out I wouldn't be happy with. I'm much happier with this chapter now and my vigor has been renewed! I will give you guys a heads up that I will probably take another short break around Christmas since it's a pretty busy time for me with family, but otherwise I will (hopefully) keep writing on schedule! 
> 
> Hope everyone who celebrated had a happy and safe Thanksgiving last week! I'm thankful for all of you amazing people that keep reading and enjoying this work as much as I'm enjoying writing it!!! Love you all!!! <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner and Discussions

Later that day, after his shift was over, Eren’s phone buzzed with another text from Levi, listing a variety of restaurants around town and asking him to pick one. He skimmed over the list, and although he was familiar with almost all of the places, a result of having lived here his whole life, he was surprised Levi knew so many despite recently moving here, a fact he mentioned in a message back.

_A lot of these places are really good. I’m surprised you know so many since you moved here not that long ago. Do you have any preferences?_

_No. You choose._

And a few moments later:

_I may have asked my coworkers for some suggestions._

_And here I was hoping that you secretly moonlighted as a Michelin Star Inspector :/ but alas_

_Pretty sure they’re supposed to be anonymous, brat._

_So what I’m hearing is, you’re neither confirming nor denying_

_Pick a restaurant._

Which was how Eren found himself standing in front of a mirror Friday evening holding two shirts up in front of him. He’d ended up picking Fritz’s—a nicer restaurant that he’d gone to a handful of times that had a decent selection and good food—and was supposed to meet Levi there soon, but at the moment, he was too preoccupied figuring out what to wear. He held up a maroon shirt, turning it this way and that, before swapping it for the navy one he held in his other hand, pulling a face at his reflection in the mirror. This was hopeless.

“Armin!” he called, walking out into their living room. “I can’t figure out what to wear.” Armin popped his head out from his own room, furrowing his eyebrows at him before coming to the living room as well.

“Eren, Annie will be here any minute, please put on a shirt.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” he said with a huff. He held up the shirts again. “Help me pick one.”

“I don’t know, just flip a coin or something.” He looked about ready to shove Eren back into his room when a knock had him abandoning the thought in favor of answering the door as fast as possible. Armin swung it open to reveal Annie, who offered him a small smile as she stepped inside and wiped off her shoes, her eyes sliding up to see Eren still standing shirtless in the middle of the room.

“Oh, hey Eren.”

“Hi Annie. What shirt should I wear?”

Armin’s gaze darted back and forth between them and Eren could almost see the puzzle pieces clicking into place inside his head. “So I’m guessing I don’t need to introduce you to each other then?”

“We used to work together at the pool before I started working at the labs on campus,” she replied, moving towards the table to drop the backpack she’d brought with her. She turned back towards Eren and pointed at a shirt. “The red one matches your skin tone better.”

“Thanks. I’m glad _someone_ helped me.” He threw a pointed glance at his roommate that Armin deflected with a roll of his eyes.

“Go get changed before you’re late for your date.”

“Yes mother,” he joked, heading back into his room to do exactly that. He tugged on the shirt, buttoning it up and tucking it into his slacks before giving himself a once over in the mirror. His ass looked great—he’d chosen these pants for a reason after all—but the rest of the outfit looked stuffy, like he was headed to a job interview instead of a date. He grabbed a belt from his closet and slipped it on, popped the first couple buttons on the shirt, and rolled his sleeves up, then checked again. Much better. Eren retrieved his wallet and phone from his nightstand, but when he checked the time, he realized he really would be late if he didn’t hurry up. Snatching his keys, tugging on his shoes, and throwing on a coat, he bid a hasty goodbye to Armin and Annie as he rushed out the door.

His drive to Fritz’s was filled with nervous excitement. Their last date had been pretty casual, and although getting dinner wasn’t super fancy, it was a little more formal than coffee, and Eren was happy that their relationship was taking a step forward. Levi had shown up to morning swim the rest of the week, making Monday an anomaly, and they had chatted during breaks like usual, but Eren had been looking forward to more one-on-one time with Levi, especially since Connie and Sasha had been teasing him about Levi nonstop since they found out.

He pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and eyed the rows of parked cars, looking for a spot. He finally found one towards the back of the lot and pulled in to park. Man, he wasn’t expecting it to be this busy; hopefully they wouldn’t have to wait forever for a table. He retrieved his phone from his pocket, planning on shooting Levi a text to let him know he was here since he didn’t see the man’s car amongst the other parked ones, but he’d once again beaten Eren to it.

_I’m at a booth towards the back on the left._

He headed inside the restaurant, making his way past a few people waiting for a table and heading towards the hostess, letting her know that he was meeting someone here, and wandered his way to the back of the restaurant in search of Levi. He scanned the faces of people sitting in booths as he passed by them, but he still couldn’t find his date. He was nearing the back wall and was about to turn around and search again when a deep voice caught his attention.

“Oi!” Turning around, Eren spotted Levi sitting at a booth he previously thought was empty. It wasn’t an affront to the man’s height—Levi was seated with his back to where he’d approached from so all Eren had seen was the empty seat across from him. The walls on top of the backs of the bench seats didn’t help things either. He slid into the spot across from the man and shot him a grateful smile as he struggled out of his coat.

“Thanks. Hope you didn’t have to wait long to get a table. It’s busier than I thought it would be.” Rid of his coat, Eren finally got a good look at Levi. He had on a plain white button-up, sans tie, and a suit jacket, and although he couldn’t see the lower half of the man, he assumed he had on slacks as well. When his gaze dragged upwards to his face, he could tell Levi was eyeing him up in a similar manner.

The raven shrugged and took a sip out of a wine glass Eren hadn’t noticed he’d had. “I made reservations.” Damn, why hadn’t he thought of that?

“Ah, gotcha. Smart.” He cracked open the menu in front of him and gave it a cursory once over before looking back up. “So what’d you get?” He nodded his head at the wine glass still in Levi’s hand which the man gave a slight twirl, creating waves in the dark liquid.

“Pinot Noir. I don’t remember the label name, but I’m sure it’s on the menu.” Eren nodded along, pretending he understood what a pinot whatever meant. At that moment, their waitress appeared, a dark-haired woman that introduced herself as Frieda, and took Eren’s drink order. He decided to keep it simple, mostly because he hadn’t had any time to actually look at their drink menu, and just went with a water, and as quickly as she appeared, the waitress hurried off. “I’m surprised you didn’t get coffee,” Levi added once she had left.

“Ugh, not with dinner,” Eren wrinkled his nose at the thought. “I drink things other than coffee you know.”

“What, like frat party kegs?”

He pointed a finger at the man across from him. “Hey, I outgrew that phase long before I even turned twenty-one. Besides, shitty frat dudes have nothing on hot lawyers,” he finished with a wink. Levi rolled his eyes, but was that a hint of a blush he could see? It was hard to tell in the low lighting.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, brat.”

“It got me a date with you, so I’d say it works. Is it flattery if it’s true?” Levi took another drink from his wine before answering, looking as though he was trying to hide a smile behind his glass.

“Are you going to keep being a little shit or are you actually going to look at the menu?” Fair point. He redirected his attention to his previously neglected menu, quickly scanning over the different items and only really reading if something caught his eye. He’d gone here a couple times before, mostly with his parents and once on a past date, but it had been a while since his last visit, and he couldn’t remember what he usually ordered. He flipped through the pages a few times before glancing back up at his date.

“What are you getting? I can’t decide.”

“Probably the salmon.” Eren nodded a reply. It did sound good, but he wasn’t in the mood for seafood at the moment. He began scouring the menu again, finally narrowing it down between two entrees, when their waitress reappeared and set down his water.

“Here you are sir. Are you both ready to order?” He shot Levi a look as if to say ‘you go first,’ and glanced back down at the pages in front of him. The man must have understood what he meant, since he proceeded to order the salmon he mentioned before, and by the time it was his turn to go, Eren had settled for what he figured was a pretty safe choice and got the chicken parm.

Once their waitress had left again to put in their orders, he took a sip from his water. “So, which coworker do I have to thank for this date?”

“Make that coworkers plural. It was something of a collaborative effort between the dipshits.” Eren had to stifle a laugh at the way Levi referred to his coworkers—knowing him, it could have meant to have been either endearing or offensive, but he wasn’t sure which.

“Ok, so who?” he pressed, leaning forward to rest his forearms on the end of the table. “You’ve told me about your work before, but not really who all you work with. You already know my coworkers, or at least the ones I work with the most.”

“They call themselves the Levi Squad.” This time Eren couldn’t stifle his laughter. God, what a weird name, especially for a group of adults to refer to themselves as. Levi seemed to read his mind as he continued. “I think it’s stupid, but they insisted on the name. Petra and Oluo are my junior associates, and Eld and Gunter are paralegals.”

“So do they help you out with cases then? I’m not really familiar with legal jargon.”

“Essentially yes.” Levi circled a spot on the tabletop with a finger. “Here’s me, a senior associate. I guess you could liken me to a manager. I handle the big cases and boss everyone else around.” That garnered a snort from Eren. Then Levi traced his finger downwards and to the left, making another circle. “Petra and Oluo are basically newbie lawyers. Sometimes they’ll do smaller cases on their own, but mostly they assist me.” Finally he traced off to the right, making another circle that he then connected back up to the top where presumably the circle representing himself was. “Eld and Gunter are our support system. They handle the research, investigation, and paperwork for cases, and work with both me and the junior associates.” He raised his head, catching Eren’s gaze. “Make sense?”

The sudden eye contact made Eren’s breath hitch in his throat momentarily. “Uh, yeah, makes sense.”

“They act like idiots sometimes, but they’re damn good at what they do. Leagues better than my team back in Trost.” The mention of Trost reminded him of something, a niggling memory at the back of his brain, and it took him a second to recall what it was before he was rocking forward to lean across the table.

“You’re Mikasa’s cousin! Why didn’t you tell me?” Whereas Eren had leaned forward, Levi leaned back at the sudden outburst, cocking an eyebrow.

“Bit of a random question, but yes, we’re related. I thought she’d already told you.”

“You mentioned Trost and that’s what reminded me. I told her about our date and then she connected the dots, although she hadn’t known you moved here.” That bit had Levi reaching for his wine and avoiding his gaze. “I’m sure she’d mentioned you in the past, but I never had a face to the name until now, so I didn’t realize it was you. I meant to ask you about it Monday, but since you weren’t there, I forgot about it.”

The raven took a long sip from his glass before answering, looking out into the restaurant and continuing to avoid eye contact. “I didn’t mean to keep it a secret, I’m just not particularly close with any of my family. Nothing against Mikasa or her parents.” He heaved out a sigh, crossing his arms over a broad chest and staring at Eren intently. “My mom was a single mother, and she died when I was younger. Never knew my dad, no grandparents, so my Uncle was stuck with me. He was a piece of shit and I basically raised myself, so I probably would’ve been better off without him. So I’m not exactly close to my immediate family, much less extended family. I see them at Christmas every once in a while, but that’s about it.”

“God that’s—”

“Depressing?”

“Fucking awful. Like Jesus Christ, I’m—I’m sorry, Levi. I shouldn’t have brought it up.” He furrowed his eyebrows, searching Levi’s face for a sign of, well, anything

Levi merely shrugged, expression still as neutral as ever. “I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t want to. It’s not like you forced my hand.” Eren supposed that was fair, or at least it made him feel a little less guilty at asking an unintentionally invasive question.

“I guess so. I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known though.” He took a gulp of his water and swirled the ice around with his straw as if trying to distract himself. This was the second time he’d made the man divulge some pretty personal information while on a date, and not only was he feeling bad about it, he was hoping it wouldn’t somehow become a habit, especially since it had the chance of scaring his date off if he kept it up.

“It was shit growing up, but I survived. I’m here now.” Levi leaned forward, propping an elbow on the table and resting his chin on his hand. “I’ll tell you what, let’s make it even. I’ve never heard you talk about your family before. Hopefully they’re less shitty than mine.” That had Eren snorting, mood lifted slightly.

“Well, my dad’s a doctor, general practice, and he’s fine. I’m not as close to him since he’s busy at the hospital most of the time. My mom’s a stay-at-home mom and I’m closer to her, although we did butt heads a lot when I was growing up. Then again, it’s not like I made it easy on her; I was kind of an asshole as a kid.”

“You say that like you stopped,” Levi quipped with a smirk.

“Ha ha,” he replied drily, taking another drink of water. “If you think I’m bad, you should see my brother, Zeke.”

“Oh? I didn’t know you had any siblings.”

“Just him. He’s technically my half-brother from my dad’s first marriage. He’s older than I am by 8 years, and we didn’t really grow up together—he spent most of the time with his mom, so I only really saw him on weekends and holidays, which was probably a good thing considering how much we used to fight. Or I guess still fight, really. We’ve never seen eye-to-eye.” They could be civil and get along for the most part, but arguments happened more often than not over even the smallest of disagreements. At least they didn’t escalate things into throwing punches like they used to.

Levi hummed in thought. “Can’t say I know what that’s like, but I thought it was normal for siblings to fight?” He couldn’t really be sure. Both Mikasa and Armin were only children, so he didn’t have anything else to compare to. 

“I guess. He wouldn’t be so bad if he’d stop nagging me about stupid shit all the time. He thought I should’ve been a doctor like him and dad, and always had to make his opinion known every time I talked about school. I think he’s finally laid off it a bit since I’m close to graduating, but now his new favorite thing is telling me that coaching is stupid and a waste of time.” He’d learned to tune out Zeke long ago, but sometimes the shit he said did get under his skin, no matter how much he wished it wouldn’t.

“Fuck him,” Levi spat, draining what was left of his wine and setting the empty glass on the table with what seemed like a little more force than necessary. “You’re a good fucking coach. I’m sure he’s just pissy because he’s a shitty doctor.” Eren didn’t need the pep talk, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

“Thanks Levi. I’m sure he’d lose his shit if I ever told him that.”

The man toyed with the rim of his empty wine glass as he spoke. “I wanted a sibling when I was younger, but after hearing about your brother, I’m glad I never got one.”

“Y’know I—” he started before movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, their waitress bustling towards them with a loaded tray.

“Okay, I have one salmon and one chicken parmesan,” she said, distributing the steaming plates to them. “Is there anything else I can get you gentlemen?” Levi ordered another glass of his pinot whatever it was and Eren declined, saying he was fine. They both dug into their food, each asking the other how it was and replying that it was good. The waitress brought out Levi’s refilled glass and left them to eat, which they did enthusiastically, making conversation between bites.

At one point Levi gestured his fork at Eren, smirking. “You’ve got sauce on your face.” Eren wiped at his mouth with his napkin, but Levi pointed to the other side, meaning he’d missed his mark, so he repeated the motion again, blushing. “Are you always this messy?”

“No, it’s just really saucy. Besides, you got something on your shirt,” he pointed back. Levi looked down at his chest, scrutinizing first his shirt then his suit jacket, but coming up empty with furrowed brows.

“Where?”

“Nowhere,” he answered with a cheeky grin.

Levi rolled his eyes and took another bite of fish. “Brat.” They finished eating, pushing back their cleared plates with full stomachs. When their waitress returned to take their empty dishes, she asked if they had any interest in dessert, but Eren bemoaned being too full to eat another bite and Levi replied that they’d pass. They sat in a comfortable silence as they waited for the check.

“Oh yeah, I think I mentioned it before, but finals are this week,” Eren began. “I’ll be pretty busy in the next couple of days, but after that I’ll be on winter break and have a lot more free time.” Levi nodded his head in understanding.

“Got it. Any bad ones?”

“Nothing terrible, I just really need to study.” He had some tougher classes this semester, but he wasn’t expecting any of his tests to be impossible. If he hunkered down with Armin, really put his nose to the grindstone and studied, he figured he’d manage fine, although he wasn’t looking forward to doing so. Break, on the other hand, was something he was anticipating. Once he was done with classes, he’d have plenty of free time to spend with Levi before school started back up again.

The raven polished off his wine and then responded. “Don’t push yourself. The worst thing you could do is burn out right before your exams. Make sure you get plenty of sleep.”

“Aye aye captain,” he mock saluted. Their waitress reappeared, brandishing the little black book containing their bill, which she set on the table between them. Before Eren could reach for his wallet or the waitress could say her spiel about the check, Levi had already retrieved his credit card, stuck it back in the book, and held it out for the waitress.

“Oh uh, I’ll be right back then.” And off she went to process the payment while Eren sat there processing how quick everything occurred.

Once it finally settled in, after he stared at the man before him for a solid few seconds, he burst out, “Levi!”

“Eren,” he replied coolly. “Is there a problem?”

“Uh yeah, you didn’t even give me a chance to pay. We could’ve at least split it.” It was definitely nice that Levi paid, and his wallet was thankful, but he wished he would’ve had the chance to at least _offer_ to cover the bill.

“I’m the one who asked you to dinner.” As Eren went to counter that point, their waitress appeared for a final time, dropping off the check, thanking them for coming, and bidding them a good night. Levi returned his card to his wallet and began filling out the check.

“Will you at least let me leave the tip?” Levi looked up from the little black bill holder, which he had tilted in a way so that Eren couldn’t read the numbers written on the paper, and seemed to consider his question.

“No.” He tried to snatch it out of the man’s hands, but Levi was too quick, raising up by his head where he couldn’t reach from across the table.

Eren sighed in defeat and returned his hands to his side of the table. “Fine. Thanks Levi, even though I wish you would’ve let me split.”

“You’re welcome.” He finished signing and snapped the holder shut, placing it at the edge of the table. “If it makes you feel any better, think of it as a treat before finals week.” He had a point. Eren would probably be surviving on frozen meals, take out, and fast food for the next week since he wouldn’t have much time to cook anything—unless of course he decided to procrastinate studying by cooking, which wasn’t unheard of. He had a habit of doing chores, cooking, cleaning, you name it, when he wanted to avoid things. Last semester, Armin had to chew him out about spending more time in the kitchen than the library during finals week.

“Okay, but I’m paying next time,” he conceded as he tugged on his coat, Levi doing the same.

“Whatever makes you happy, Eren.” Then again, there wasn’t much Levi had to do make him happy. All he had to do was be there. They slipped out of the booth and walked out of the restaurant side by side. Eren fiddled with his keys in his pocket once they made it outside, glancing over at Levi.

“My car’s kind of towards the back,” he said, nodding in the direction he was parked.

“Mine too. The lot was pretty full.” Eren hummed in agreeance as they headed towards their cars. Levi’s was a little closer to the front and they reached it first, Eren’s just beyond it in the next row.

“Thanks again for dinner. It was really good.”

“No problem. Glad you enjoyed it.” They stood there awkwardly, Eren shifting his weight from one foot to the other, until Levi stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder before slipping it around to cup the back of his neck. Eren’s breath hitched, a little because Levi’s hand was cold but mostly because he hadn’t expected the man to do what he assumed, wanted, hoped he was about to do. Levi seemed to search his eyes for a second, looking for any hesitation and giving him a chance to back away, before he was pulling Eren’s head down to meet his lips. The kiss was soft and slow, Levi’s lips tasting slightly of the wine he’d been drinking earlier, and although Eren desperately wanted to chase that taste and lick his way past those lips, a restaurant parking lot wasn’t exactly the place to do so. Levi pulled away and Eren chased him forward for another quick peck before finally righting himself, but Levi’s hand stayed attached to his neck.

“I don’t want to,” he said with a smile, “but I should probably get going.” Levi cleared his throat and slid his hand free, taking a step back.

“Text me when you’re done with finals, and then maybe we could do this again once you’re free.” Whether he meant get dinner, go on a date, or continue with that kiss at a later date, Eren wasn’t sure, but either option was good enough for him.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll see you around, Levi.”

“Goodbye, Eren.” And then he was stepping into his car and Eren headed towards his own, filled with a little more motivation to finish finals than he was before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here she be, the second date with another kiss!! 
> 
> Tomorrow (or today already, according to ao3) is my birthday!! So uh, in kind of the opposite way it's supposed to be, enjoy this bday gift from me to you!! I'm celebrating by watching the first episode of season 4 as soon as I hit publish on this lol  
> Also as a heads up, this coming week is a busy one for me, so the next chapter probably wont be coming until the 21st or so. But fear not!!! I am extremely excited for the next couple of chapters, so I'm sure I'll be churning them out once I get to writing
> 
> Once again, thank you so much to everyone who engages with this work in any way!!! You all are the best bday present I could ask for <3


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finals and Friday

Mikasa arrived home on a Sunday afternoon. Eren and Armin were there to greet her at the terminal, offering to make the two-hour there-and-back trip to the airport so her parents wouldn’t have to, and in an attempt to spend some extra time together. Hugs were exchanged and happy tears were wiped away, the trio excited to be reunited again even though they were only apart a few months. Armin drove them home, knowing Eren would be too focused on chatting to properly focus on the road, and although Mikasa would have been more than capable, he wanted her to relax and catch up instead of chauffeuring them around.

So there they sat, Armin in the driver’s seat, Mikasa in the passenger seat at their insistence, and Eren in the middle of the back, preferring the hump seat over a more comfortable side seat since it meant he’d be able to speak to his friends easier. They chatted and joked and jammed out to music they used to listen to in high school, the drive ending sooner than any of them really wanted it to. The two roommates offered to have her over later that night—knowing this was their last chance to hang out this week before they spent the rest of it cramming—but Mikasa declined, saying she already had plans to get dinner with her parents and Jean. Eren made a face at the mention of her boyfriend, which Armin discretely punched him for, but they both said they understood and all three promised to get together once finals were finished.

After unloading her luggage at her parent’s house, the bulk of which Mikasa carried with ease, Eren and Armin mostly just assisting so they felt like they helped, the trio greeted the Ackermans. After much more hugging and happy tears and small talk, Mikasa decided that coming home was the perfect time to announce that Eren was dating her cousin, much to the embarrassment of Eren. Her mom cooed and fawned over the new information with excitement, while her dad remarked that it would be nice to officially add Eren to the family, since he was essentially Mika’s brother already, making Eren’s face burn. Shortly thereafter he bid his goodbyes and ushered Armin out the door as quickly as possible, but the damage was done: Armin teased him mercilessly about the comment all the way home. The remainder of their Sunday, just like the rest of the week to come, was spent studying.

Talking to Levi was Eren’s bright spot of the day on Monday. He told the raven about Mikasa’s homecoming, conveniently leaving out any mention of her father’s comment, and complained about not getting to see her much due to finals. Levi inquired about his schedule and Eren replied that he only had tests Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, but that one on Wednesday was going to be bitch and a half. As soon as he got home, he resumed studying with Armin, only stopping for bathroom breaks and food. Every so often he’d glance at his phone, tempted to text Levi and debating doing so, only to stop himself. They hadn’t texted casually yet, only messaging to set up dates, and although initiating more casual conversation seemed like a good next step, a welcome and exciting next step, he wasn’t sure how Levi would respond. He didn’t seem like the kind of person to text casually, and now definitely wasn’t the time to really initiate it—Eren knew he should be studying instead of thinking of Levi, and Levi wouldn’t hesitate to tell him so. But just getting to talk to the man would’ve been worth any reprimand.

By Tuesday morning, he was already beginning to feel a bit burned out, which seemed ridiculous since he hadn’t even taken any exams yet. He knew he’d have to pull himself together in time for his final later that afternoon, but for now, he mindlessly wiped the windows as he stared out them into space.

“-ren. Eren!” Connie’s shout jerked him out of his stupor, whipping around to face his coworker. “Dude, I’ve been saying your name for the past minute. Finals kicking your ass already?”

Eren ran a hand over his face, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up a little bit more. “Sorry dude. Yeah, I’m beat. What’d you need?”

“Sash and I are having an ‘end of finals’ party Friday night at my place. You, Mikasa, and Armin are all invited,” he squirted more cleaner on the window in front of him, wiping it away before suddenly pausing mid swipe. “Oh uh, and Levi too,” he tacked on. A party with a shit ton of his friends sounded like the perfect way to end this hellish week, but he wasn’t sure how well Levi would fit into that scenario. It’s not that he didn’t want Levi to meet his friends, but a party like that was pretty much the worst way he could think of to introduce the man: Sasha and Connie’s parties were known to get a little out of hand from time to time.

“Thanks Connie, we’ll definitely be there. But uh, I’m not sure about Levi. He’s not really the college party type.” Connie almost visibly sagged with relief.

“Ok, yeah, I kind of assumed so, but I didn’t want to _not_ invite him since you guys are dating now, y’know?”

“You’re good, dude.” They finished cleaning the windows and went about the rest of their shift as normal. After heading back home, Eren studied for a bit, took his final in the afternoon, and then, you guessed it, studied even more for his two tests tomorrow.

Wednesday morning he must’ve started looking rough since Levi called him out as soon as he saw him, chastising him for not taking care of himself properly and warning him again about burning out. Eren waved him off, but appreciated the concern, going so far as to taunt Levi with how he fussed over Eren. Levi threatened to dunk him in the pool. But in the end, Levi gave him study tips and encouragement before he left for work. He took the first of his two finals not long after he returned home, then resumed studying with Armin the rest of the afternoon. Mikasa came over that night to cook dinner for them, knowing this would be their busiest part of the week and wanting to help reduce some of their stress by taking care of the food, but mostly wanting to spend time with her friends, even though they wouldn’t be doing much. For the trio, it was enough just to be around each other. Eren tried to sneak into the kitchen a handful of times, but either Mikasa would kick him out or Armin would drag him back to the study table, whichever caught him leaving first. They took a break to enjoy their meal all together, but too soon for any of their liking, Eren had to run off to take a late-night final. Fuck whoever decided to schedule an exam at 8 o’clock at night.

At least the final ended up going better than expected and wasn’t as much of a pain in the ass as he was afraid of. Thursday flew by, and with the finishing of his last test, he was finally free. Eren collapsed on his bed that evening after coaching swim practice and fell into some much-needed sleep way earlier than he usually went to bed. When he awoke early Friday morning, he was filled with more energy than he’d felt all week. For a moment he was excited to see Levi again, until he remembered that it was Friday, meaning Levi wouldn’t be there, and his shoulders sagged a little bit. He kept shooting glances at his phone again while slogging through his morning routine. Levi _had_ said to text him once he was done with finals. It was too early to text him at this point—he obviously got up pretty early to come to the pool during the week, but Eren wasn’t sure if he got up at the same time when he didn’t show, and the last thing he wanted was to inadvertently wake him when he was trying to sleep in—so he resolved to text him later that morning once he was at work.

Hanji asked him about his finals as they worked through their cleaning duties. Surprisingly, once they’d actually started dating, his boss hadn’t asked him about Levi again. Whether Hanji did it of her own volition or because Levi threatened her into not pestering him, Eren wasn’t sure, but he was thankful for it regardless. He got enough grilling at work from Sasha and Connie already. After finishing cleaning, Eren offered to go up first, and by the time it was his turn to go on break, he had nearly forgotten about texting Levi, the sight of his phone as he walked into the office finally making him remember. He plucked it off of the counter and settled into his chair, sending the man a message and hoping that by this point he was awake.

_Good morning Levi! I finished my last exam yesterday, so I’m officially done with finals week_

Eren hadn’t been expecting a response anytime soon, but as soon as he closed out of his messages, a text arrived from Levi, shortly followed by another.

_Congratulations._

_How did it go?_

_Outside of being exhausted from studying, not too bad. The test I thought would be the worst turned out easier than I thought. The rest of them weren’t that bad either. Supposed to get final grades next week sometime._

_That’s good. I’m sure you did fine._

He waited for some sort of follow up or continuing question, but none ever came, even after waiting for most of his break. Was that it? If so, Levi was way less conversational over text than in person. Should he ask him a question, like how his week was? Or would that be annoying? Eren ran over the pros and cons in his head, knowing he was probably overthinking this whole thing, but before he could come to a decision, he realized it was time to swap Hanji out on stand. By the time he was back on break again, Levi hadn’t said anything more, and Eren felt whatever opportunity he’d had to respond was long gone.

His slightly dampened mood was brightened when he headed home after work and realized he’d have the entire day to do whatever he wanted, at least until later that night. So like he’d wanted to all week, he plopped his ass on the couch, turned on Netflix, and refused to budge until absolutely necessary, meaning not until Armin came home and forced him to go shower and get ready. His roommate arrived a few hours later and they ate dinner together, but afterwards, just like he’d predicted, Armin told him he needed to go make himself look presentable. Eren sassed back that maybe he’d just show up in the ratty sweatpants and old t-shirt he was already wearing, which earned him a deserved eyeroll, but he complied and dragged himself off to the bathroom. Freshly showered and squeaky clean, he threw on a nicer hoodie and comfy pair of jeans, not really feeling the need to dress up when it’d just be him chilling with his friends. Together he and Armin Ubered over to Connie’s place, planning on meeting up with Mikasa and the others there.

Shadowy figures moved in the windows and music pulsed faintly from the house when they stepped out of the car, making their way through the front door and inside without knocking, knowing no one would be able to hear it even if they’d bothered. It’s not like the music was that loud either, but get enough people in a room all trying to hold conversations, you’d be hard pressed to hear anything softer than a shout—they’d been to enough parties here to know. The duo stepped through the hallway and living room, nodding and waving to the people they recognized on their way into the kitchen, searching both for drinks and Mikasa. Less people were huddled in here, and Eren quickly found where the booze was placed, but still no sign of the third friend to complete their trio. He and Armin helped themselves to drinks, of which Connie and Sasha had really gone all-out on. There was an assortment of different beers, mixers, liquor, and a gigantic container of what Sasha dubbed ‘Sasha’s Secret Sauce,’ her own specially crafted version of jungle juice. No one knew exactly what was in it, since for some reason she was overly protective of the recipe, but whatever it was she blended together, it was guaranteed to fuck you up if you weren’t careful. Armin set about mixing his own drink while Eren went straight for the sauce, taking a tentative drink after pouring his cup full—yep, still no clue what was in it, but at least it tasted good.

He was about to ask Armin if they should go look for Mikasa when his roommate announced, “I saw Annie in the other room, I’m gonna go say hi to her,” before turning back into the living room and leaving him there. Eren took another swig of his drink, looking around the kitchen for anyone he knew, but when that failed, he set off for the dining room. Groups of people were scattered around the perimeter, dining room table dominating the middle of the room and set for a game of beer pong no one was playing, and off to one side he saw Sasha and Connie hovering over the snack table they’d made. He planned to head over towards them when dark hair off in one corner caught his eye and he changed his direction. As he neared, he saw it was in fact Mikasa like he’d assumed, but what he hadn’t seen was who was with her: her boyfriend. Eren liked Jean, more than most people thought when they saw them interact. They’d begrudgingly become friends over the years, forming a mutual respect for each other, but their way of showing comradery was trading insults, mostly harmless ones, although on the rare occasion they led to an actual argument. Since Jean and Mikasa started dating—why she’d settled for him was lost on Eren—Eren was essentially stuck with him for the foreseeable future. But now wasn’t really a time he wanted to see Jean. Armin had just ditched him for his girlfriend, and he’d barely seen Mika since she came back, so he’d been hoping to spend time with her one-on-one. He greeted Mikasa with a hug, careful not to spill either of their drinks, and sent Jean a terse nod.

“Sup Horseface.”

“Hey Jaeger. Long time no see.” It really had been a while: the last time he’d seen him was sometime before Mikasa had left.

“Aw, you miss me?” he teased, taking a drink from his cup.

Jean knocked his head back with a laugh. “You fucking wish.” Then he flashed him a cocky grin that Eren knew meant trouble. “So I heard you’re dating Mikasa’s cousin?” Guess the news had gotten around the friend group. Eren eyed him with suspicion. The question seemed harmless, but with the way Jean said it, he knew there had to be some sort of catch.

“Yeah, we’ve gone out a couple of times,” he answered, raising an eyebrow at Mikasa. She shrugged back, seemingly at a loss for what exactly Jean was getting at. Jean paused for a moment, letting the suspense build, before leaning towards Eren conspiratorially.

“So if things work out with this guy, and Mikasa and I get married, we’ll be related.” Eren choked mid-drink, not expecting in the slightest that that was what he was about to say, and he saw Mikasa stifle a laugh at his expense. Geez, first Mikasa’s dad, then Jean, was anyone going to give him a break?

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “God, I’m tempted to break up with Levi just so that never happens.” Which was a lie. Not even being stuck with Jean forever was enough temptation to make him let the man go. “I’m gonna go find Arm.” 

“You can’t run from family, Jaeger!” Jean called after him, and Eren didn’t bother to turn around when he flipped him off as he walked away. Armin had said he was heading to the living room, so that was the direction Eren steered himself towards. He searched the faces of the different groups clustered in corners and on chairs, finally spotting his roommate seated on a couch next to Annie and appearing to be absorbed in conversation with Bertholdt and Reiner. He approached slowly, waiting for a lull in the conversation to insert himself into the group, not wanting to interrupt, but none came, the group chatting animatedly and unaware of Eren hovering at the peripheral. He took a drink awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot and glancing around the room, before deciding he’d just have to make an opening himself. Squaring his shoulders, he walked closer, tapping Armin on the shoulder from the side, making his friend finally glance up and realize he was there.

“Oh, hey Eren. You find Mikasa?”

“Hey guys.” He waved a hand at the rest of the group, receiving nods and smiles back. “Yeah, she’s in the dining room with Jean.”

“Okay, cool. I’ll have to go say hi to her later.” The conversation seemed to dip there, Eren not really knowing what to say and not wanting to intrude upon the group. He worked with Bert and Reiner, and would call them friends, but they had their own tighter knit trio with Annie. Eren knew Armin would be wanting to hang out with Annie’s friends and get to know them more, not having had the opportunity to do so yet, so he decided not to interject himself. Armin opened his mouth as if to say something but Eren cut him off.

“I’m gonna go get another drink.” His roommate nodded and turned back to the others seated with him. It wasn’t that Eren needed another drink, he’d only drunk about half of his glass so far, barely beginning to feel a buzz, but it gave him a reason to excuse himself. He took a large gulp as he made his way towards the kitchen—might as well polish off his cup and refill it while he was there. A voice calling his name caught his attention over the drone of music and chatter in the background, accompanied by a waving arm that belonged to Historia, her other arm linked with Ymir’s. He walked up to the couple, greeting the two of them.

“Eren! It seems like forever since I’ve seen you.”

“You mean since Thursday?” Historia guarded when Eren coached the local swim team Thursday nights, meaning they’d just seen each other yesterday evening.

She punched him lightly with her free arm. “You know what I mean.” And he did. Although they saw each other at work, it wasn’t super often that they actually worked any shifts together since Eren typically on openings while she worked closings. It’d been even longer since they’d hung out outside of the pool.

“I know, you’re right. It’s been a while. How’s nursing school going?” Historia had originally been a business major at her father’s urging, but had switched majors after slogging through a miserable first year, deciding to go nursing instead. It’d set her back a year, making her a fifth-year student, but she was much happier with what she was pursing now. At least majoring in business hadn’t been all bad—it was how she’d met her girlfriend Ymir, who, similar to Jean, had graduated and managed to get a job with a local company, and was the one to convince Historia to change majors in the first place. Said girlfriend was leaning against the wall on her phone, only half paying attention to the conversation. Not that Eren could blame her. Historia had probably dragged her along to the party against her will to make her socialize.

They chatted about classes and pool gossip, Eren filling her in about his dates with Levi, which Historia had already heard about from Sasha. As the conversation went on, Ymir began to slowly lean off the wall and onto Historia, nearly dwarfing her smaller frame with her taller one, until she was almost hanging off her.

“Can you use your words like a normal person to tell me what you want instead of crushing me?” Historia sassed at her girlfriend as she pushed her off, Ymir unperturbed at being uprooted.

“Nah, it’s much more fun this way,” she replied with a cocky grin, swooping down to kiss Historia on the cheek. “I just wanted to annoy you.”

“That’s gay,” Eren interjected, hiding a smile behind the rim of his nearly empty cup.

Ymir shot him a wink, resting her arm back on top of Historia’s head. “You know it.” Historia pouted but didn’t make any move to remove the arm from her head.

“I’m gonna go get a refill, you guys want anything?” The couple waved him off, and so Eren headed back into the kitchen like he said he was going to earlier.

He refilled his cup with more of Sasha’s jungle juice and leaned against the counter, taking a sip. He wasn’t quite ready to go back out and rejoin his friends, content to sit in the relatively empty kitchen for a bit. It seemed like everyone he knew was coupled up—Mikasa and Jean, Armin and Annie, Historia and Ymir, even Connie and Sasha. He was happy for his friends, he truly was, but it felt a little awkward being the only one there without a partner even though he wasn’t single. As he looked around at the party, he wished that he’d extended the invitation to Levi, that he could be there by his side with his friends, at least so he’d feel a little less alone. Then he caught sight of Hannah and Franz making out in the corner and grimaced. Okay, maybe it was a good idea Levi wasn’t here.

Eren turned away and chugged most of what was in his cup. He wasn’t drunk enough to deal with watching other people swap spit. He topped off his cup for the third time, finally feeling the buzz of tipsiness flowing through him, and pulled out his phone. He missed Levi. He stared at the messages he’d sent him earlier that morning, fingers hovering over the keys, unsure. _Hey Levi, what’re you up to?_ Then he deleted it, trying again. _Hey, got any plans this weekend?_ He erased that one too. God, why was texting him so hard? Eren wanted nothing more than to talk to Levi right now, but it was late, and Levi’s previous responses had been terse, so he was hesitant to say something. _Hey, I miss you._ Now _that_ sounded desperate. He was about to erase it as well when Connie and Sasha came stumbling into the kitchen, nearly barreling into him and threatening to knock over the numerous bottles spread across the countertop. He locked his phone, slid it back into a pocket to free his hands, and caught his tripping friends, setting them both upright.

“Woah, you guys good?” He looked back and forth between them, trying to gauge their drunkenness.

“We’re fine, totally fine,” Sasha dragged out, straightening her shirt. “Connie thought he could race me to the kitchen, but I wasn’t about to let him win.”

“Yeah, so she tripped me,” Connie replied with a roll of his eyes, heading towards the bottles they almost knocked over. He turned over his shoulder to look at Eren. “We’re doing shots. You in?”

“You sure you’re not drunk enough already?” They had just come stumbling in, after all.

Sasha tossed an arm over his shoulder, nearly knocking him over once again. “Aw c’mon. We’re drunk, but not _that_ drunk. It’s the end of finals, let us live a little.” Connie wiggled the bottle in his hand.

“You joining us, Jaeger? Or are you chicken?” The arm around his neck suddenly disappeared, Sasha instead using it to flap her arms like a chicken, making her and her boyfriend snort. Eren never was one to back down from a challenge, and he wasn’t about to start now. He was just reaching tipsy: a few shots couldn’t hurt.

“You’re on, Springer. Pour me one.” Connie clapped him on the back, proceeding to pour them each one shot glass full and passing them out. They clinked their shots together before pulling back and swallowing them down, Eren coughing slightly as he wiped his mouth, still feeling the faint burn in his throat. “Christ, they’re always worse than I remember.” He never really was one for shots—if he was going to get drunk, he wanted it to taste good. At least it was working. He could already feel himself loosening up. Sasha and Connie both grimaced after finishing theirs, nodding in agreeance. They stood and chatted for a while, Connie eventually pouring them all another round, other people filtering in and out of the kitchen around them. Suddenly Sasha latched onto Connie’s arm, eyes going wide and looking back and forth between her boyfriend and Eren, tense silence as they waited for her to speak.

“We,” she began solemnly, “should play Boom Cup.” Connie clutched at his chest and let out a sigh of relief.

“Geez Sash, don’t scare me like that,” he reprimanded, but he was already grinning widely. “Fuck yeah we should play Boom Cup. Eren, we’ll go set it up if you’ll go grab people?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” He headed back out into the living room in search of those he knew. He found Historia and Ymir still off in their own corner, then went over to Armin and Annie’s little group, everyone agreeing to play. He stopped and let a couple other clusters of people know before heading into the dining room, finding Mikasa and Jean already gathered around the nearly set up table. Connie and Sasha put the last couple of cups down and everyone circled around the table, ready to play.

The rules of Boom Cup were pretty simple and easy to catch on to, essentially an independent version of beer pong. The table was set with about 20 cups clustered in the middle—the outer ones only had a little bit of booze in them, but as you got closer to the center, they were filled more and more, until you reached the very center cup, dubbed the Death Cup, which was filled to the brim. Sasha announced that the Death Cup this time was some of her Secret Sauce with an extra shot poured in it. Players stood around the table, and two players began the game, each with an empty cup and a ping-pong ball. The objective was to bounce the ball into your own cup, then pass it to the left, but if you got it in on your first try, you could send your cup to whoever you wanted, wherever around the table. If two people right next to each other had the two cups, but the person on the right made the ball in their cup before the person to the left was able to make it in and pass it, then they would stack their cup on top of the person to the left’s cup, ‘Booming’ them. Then the stacked cups would move to the left again, and the person on the left would have to select one of the cups in the middle of the table, drink it, and then attempt to get the ball in that new cup to continue the game. It only got more difficult as it went on because one cup would become a stack of cups, making it more difficult to get the ping-pong ball into. The game ended when all of the cups in the middle were drunk and added to the stack, forcing the next person that was ‘boomed’ to drink the Death Cup.

Connie kept an empty cup and ping-pong ball to himself, passing the other to Bert across the table from him, and on Sasha’s go, they began bouncing their balls off the table and attempting to get them into their cups. Connie took a few goes but got it in on the fourth try, hurriedly passing his cup off to Sasha, while Bert kept struggling to get the ball to bounce high enough, face getting visibly sweatier with each failed attempt. Sasha sunk her ball in one bounce, high fived Connie, and passed it off to Reiner, who was to the right of Bert, meaning that if Reiner made it in before Bert did, Bert would get boomed. The sudden realization made him panic, ball bounces becoming more erratic, before he finally made it in and passed it off mere seconds before Reiner sunk his own ball. The cups went around and around the table, one stack growing taller and taller, the friends laughing, cheering, and screaming with the competition. It turned out both Annie and Mikasa were insanely good, almost always managing to make the shot in one try, adding more stress and fun to the game every time the cup was placed in front of them. Anytime Jean got the ball in on the first try, he’d send his cup to Eren, no matter where the other cup was at the table, which prompted Eren to return the favor. They ended up exchanging jeers and insults every time the other was struggling to make their shot. Soon the cluster of cups in the middle had petered down until only one cup remained besides the Death Cup, and the single cup was rapidly approaching the stacked pile of 15 cups in front of Connie. Eren could see he was freaking out, Connie’s bounces getting so close to the rim but never quite going up enough. Ymir sunk the ping-pong ball into her cup on the third try, passing it off to Historia who was right next to Connie, causing him to let out a string of expletives as he kept missing. Historia bounced the ball once and the ball rattled into the bottom of the cup before she was lifting it up and slamming it down onto Connie’s stack.

A cheer went up, joined by Connie groaning, and Ymir and Historia high-fived at his expense. The stack was passed to Sasha, who Eren thought would be panicking like her boyfriend, but was instead staring at the cups with laser focus and appearing to judge the angle of the cups. Connie grabbed the final cup before the Death Cup and chugged it, slamming it down onto the table after with more force than necessary. Sasha lined up her shot, bounced, missed, bounced again, and then the ball was soaring up and into its goal, barely having made it into the cup before it was being shoved at Eren with a wild grin from Sasha. Oh fuck, he’d really hoped that Sasha would choke, and the game would end before it was his turn again, so he was wildly unprepared to summit the massive stack of cups before him. He heard rather than saw Connie’s ball finally go in, and then it was just him and Sasha racing towards the end. His friends were cheering, some egging Sasha on to finish him, others telling him to hurry up or to aim his bounces better, and Jean just insulting him. He gritted his teeth and aimed the best he could, one shot hitting the rim and bouncing out, sending him scrambling onto the floor to retrieve the ping-pong ball, but just as he stood and bounced another shot, Sasha was slamming her cup onto his with a victory screech. The table erupted into chaos.

Armin patted him on the back apologetically. “Sorry you got stuck with it. You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to, y’know.” Mikasa rounded the table and came up on his other side, hand extended.

“Here, I’ll drink it.” Eren grabbed the Death Cup and held it out of her reach.

“Geez, ‘Kasa, I never said I wouldn’t. It’s not even that bad.” It was just jungle juice with an extra shot, and he’d drank worse things in a Death Cup before. He almost had to suppress a shiver at the memory of an especially bad mix of beer, wine, and tequila that he had to down at Connie’s birthday party last year.

Jean saddled up next to Mikasa, eyebrow raised. “Oh, you’re actually drinking it? I thought you’d pussy out.”

“In your dreams,” Eren scoffed. He’d planned to drink it like normal the rest of the night, but just to one-up Jean, he decided to chug it. With slightly drunken abandon, he locked eyes with him and downed the entire glass, not breaking eye contact until he was finished. Jean rolled his eyes when he dropped the empty cup onto the floor.

“If you hadn’t fumbled your shots so bad, you wouldn’t have had to drink it in the first place.”

“What, like you could’ve done better? Last I checked, you got boomed more than I did.” He saw Mikasa and Armin exchange looks, as if trying to sense if the argument would go too far, but he was just drunk enough that he didn’t care if he was pushing Jean’s buttons. It wasn’t like Jean was pulling any punches at him either.

“So? At least I can actually make the ball in when it matters.” Eren squared his shoulders and stepped closer, getting right up in his face.

“You’re real mouthy tonight, Kirstein.”

“And you’re real fucking annoying, Jaeger.” Armin and Mikasa decided that that was enough, swooping in to grab each of their arms and steer them away from each other. It’s not like they would’ve actually fought, physically anyways. When they were younger, sure, but they’d both grown out of their ‘solve everything with fists and rage’ phase and hadn’t escalated things to blows in years. They’d get in each other’s space, scream till they were red in the face, maybe even grapple a bit at the absolute worst, but no real fighting. Both of them knew that Mikasa would be pissed off if they actually did, and the one thing they agreed on was that neither of them wanted to risk that.

Eren shrugged off Armin’s hand and threw a scowl back at Jean. “I’m gonna get some air.” He heard Armin start to say something, but he was already out of earshot and heading to the front door. The cold blasted him in the face once he stepped outside, but it felt refreshing rather than bracing. He already ran hot anyways, and with the alcohol he’d been drinking, the hoodie he was wearing, and the people crowded inside the house, he was beginning to sweat inside, so the air was a welcome reprieve. He plopped down on the front porch steps, watching his hot breath roll out in huffs that curled and dissipated into the chilly air. Normally he would’ve brushed off Jean’s words, but something about them tonight really got to him. Perhaps it was because he’d already been feeling out of place tonight, the lone friend in a sea of couples, or that he was already worried about being annoying to Levi by texting him. Levi. He really wished he was here right now. He could use some of that dark, off-colored humor to cheer him up right about now. He pulled his phone out, unlocking it to find that message he’d written earlier but never sent. He gazed at it in a stupor before hitting send.

_Hey, I miss you._

After a minute, the realization of what exactly he’d done sunk in, along with instant regret. It was nearly 1 am, surely he’d be asleep by now and all Eren would be was annoying him, just like he worried about before, or almost worse, coming across as desperate or clingy. He groaned and fell back to lay on the wood of the porch, staring up at his phone. He probably shouldn’t be texting Levi drunk—and at this point he was well and truly drunk—but he didn’t just want to leave it at that. He mashed at the keyboard, giving it a quick onceover to make sure there weren’t any glaring errors before sending an additional message.

_Sorry Levi, is kinda late and your probabbly asleep right now. Sory for bein annoying_

He heard the door open behind him, footsteps echoing on the wood, and watched as Jean took a seat on the stairs on the opposite side of him. Eren pocketed his phone with a sigh and heaved himself upright.

“Did Mikasa make you come say sorry?” Jean stiffened slightly at that.

“No.” There was a long pause as they sat there before he admitted, “Maybe.”

Eren huffed out a laugh. “You’re whipped, dude.”

“Fuck off.” But there was no malice behind the words. They sat there in silence for a while, both just watching cars drive by, until Jean ventured, “So…are we good?”

“Yeah, we’re good. You can tell Momkasa that we kissed and made up.” An official apology wasn’t needed. Eren was just as guilty of trying to get a rise out of Jean, and they had a sort of mutual understanding to never actually apologize. Neither of them held grudges and any bad feelings were usually forgotten after a few minutes. They riled each other up, but both were just as quick to calm down after.

“Thank god, I’m freezing my ass off out here,” he complained, rising from the steps and dusting off his jeans before heading towards the door where he paused. “You coming?”

“Nah, I’m gonna stay out for a bit. Feels nice out here.” Jean just shrugged and retreated back into the party. Eren turned back to stare out into the neighborhood. It was nice out here, quiet, and he could see the stars in between the treetops. He was trying to figure out what constellations he knew when he felt a buzzing in his pocket, whipping his phone out as soon as he realized and nearly dropping it in his rush. It was Levi. Levi had texted him.

_You’re fine. I was up anyways._

_What’s up?_

_Jean was justs being an assshole. He called me annoyig, pissed me off. But he apollogized so wer good now_

_Mikasa’s boyfriend? It’s good he apologized._

_You’re not annoying Eren._

_Although I will say your bad spelling is a bit annoying._

_Yeh, that’s him. horsface_

_Thanks!! :D Glad Im not annnoyig you_

_Sorry_ _☹_ _I’m drunk. Tryng my best but its hard to typ_

And then his phone was ringing in his hand, Levi’s name flashing across the screen. He almost couldn’t believe it, and seemed to almost mechanically swipe accept and bring the phone up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“I figured this would be easier for both of us than texting back and forth,” Levi’s answered. They’d never called before, and it felt weirdly intimate to have his low voice so close to his ear.

“Oh, yeah, that’s fine. I figured you weren’t one to casually text much anyways.”

“We’ve texted.” Levi sounded a bit indignant, which made him laugh.

“Yeah, but only to set up dates. Not to talk. I want to—text you more, I mean—but you didn’t respond much when I did, so I didn’t want to bother you. I wanted to text you all week, during finals and stuff, but uh, I knew I should be studying, and I thought I’d, I don’t know, scare you off or sound clingy or whatever.” He knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Levi sighed on the other end of the line.

“You’re right, I’m not usually a texter.” Eren snorted at the awkward phrase but Levi continued. “It’s fine if it’s you, though. You won’t bother me.” That made him grin, staring off into the distance like an idiot. It made him happy to hear it, Levi made him happy.

“Ok cool. Can’t wait to spam your phone with memes now.”

“You better not, you little shit.” And then he was laughing into the phone, condensation rolling out into the night air as he did.

“Wish you were here right now,” he said before he could even think to stop himself.

Levi hummed into the speaker. “Where are you?”

“At a party with my friends. Connie’s house. He and Sasha threw it for the end of finals. ‘S why I’m drunk. We played Boom Cup earlier, but now I’m outside.”

“Sounds like you’re having fun. You shouldn’t stay outside though, it’s cold out.” Which now that he thought about it, it was getting a little chilly out, and he was just beginning to shiver. But he didn’t want to admit that to Levi.

“But I like talking to you.” He heard a faint chuckle in his ear that made him smile softly.

“I like talking to you too.” The smile grew into a full-fledged grin. “But you should go have fun with your friends. We can talk another time.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go inside.”

“And drink some water.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“Goodnight Eren. Get home safe.”

“I will. Night Levi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello it’s me, a day late, I bring you this fucking gigantic chapter as an apology
> 
> Me: Okay, I’ve got like two weeks until I said I’d post next, so I’ll definitely be able to get a chapter done, and probably get halfway done with the next chapter ahead of schedule, so then I can post more consistently again   
> Also me: lmao no, write one bigass chapter that you will refuse to split
> 
> We hit over 50k babyyyy!!! Which like, wow, still amazes me. That’s more than I’ve ever written in my life, and far more than I expected to ever write tbh. But I’m having so much fun writing it that I’m very glad I decided to just go for it and make this thing
> 
> Hope everyone who celebrated had a Happy Hanukkah this past week, and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Joyous Kwanza, and Happy Holidays in the upcoming week! Let this big ol chapter be my gift to you lol  
> I’ll be busy the next week with the holidays and family, so the next chapter might not be until after the new year
> 
> Thanks again to everyone reading / commenting / kudos-ing!!!! You have my eternal love and thanks <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hangovers and Hangouts

Eren awoke Saturday morning with a headache and a dry mouth. He rolled over and buried his head in his pillow, trying to ignore the distant throb of his brain, but after tossing and turning and failing to fall back asleep again, he resigned himself to starting his day. He felt grody. He’d definitely forgotten to brush his teeth before bed, his hair was full of knots, and he was in dire need of a shower. Stumbling his way out of bed and into the bathroom, he cranked on the shower, ridding himself of his clothes as he waited for it to heat up. Once at the perfect temperature just shy of skin melting, he stepped in, letting the water rush over him. He ran over everything that had happened last night as he worked shampoo into his hair. He and Armin had ubered back home and stumbled in way later than either of them had been meaning to, but before that, they’d all done a mass round of shots and even before that, they’d played another game of Boom Cup. He remembered dancing with Mikasa, watching Connie hold Sasha’s hair back, arm wrestling Jean, telling Annie embarrassing stories about Armin, letting Historia braid his hair, trading pool stories with all his coworkers, talking with Levi, and—

Levi. He was mentally kicking himself for texting the man while drunk. It wasn’t that Eren regretted it, not in the slightest, but he had no clue what all he’d said—from what he remembered, the conversation was great, but then again, he thought everything he did was great when he was drunk. As far as he knew, he could’ve made a drunken embarrassment of himself while talking to the man. He’d have to go reread their messages to make sure.

After finishing his shower, running through the rest of his morning routine, and getting dressed in fresh clothes, he finally sat down with his phone. There weren’t as many messages as he remembered and thankfully nothing was that bad, outside of his atrocious drunken spelling.

_Thanks for helping babysit me last night. Hope I didn’t bother you too much_

_Maybe I could make it up to you by cooking you dinner sometime?_

Levi paid for dinner last time so Eren wanted to repay the favor, albeit in a slightly different way. It’d been a while since he’d been able to sit down and cook a full-fledged meal, but now that he was finished with school for the next month, he’d have plenty of time on his hands to spend in the kitchen. Plus, he was hoping he could use his cooking skills to woo Levi—didn’t everyone love a man in apron? When no immediate response came, he headed off to scrounge up some food and aspirin for his lingering headache.

He finally got a text back while planted on the couch, mid-bite into a breakfast burrito he’d whipped up for lunch. Well, technically breakfast, but could you really call it that when it was almost noon?

_You certainly were entertaining. Like I said, I was already up. It’s no big deal._

_I didn’t peg you for the cooking type._

Eren fumbled to set his burrito down without spilling out its contents, wiping his hands on his sweatpants before typing back.

_I’ve been told I’m pretty decent at it_ 👨🍳

_We could do like dinner and a movie at my place? If that’s cool with you_

_I’ll take your word for it. Sure._

_Great!! Would tomorrow night work? I’m hanging with Arm and Mikasa tonight_

_Already agreed to get drinks with eyebrows and shitty glasses._

_Although I am tempted to bail._

_Lmao go hang out with your friends!! How about Monday night after you’re off_

_work? I’m done with classes, so I’ve got plenty of free time during the week_

_That works. I won’t be off until 6 or so though._

_No problem!_

Eren’s initial wave of excitement quickly wore off once he realized that _Levi_ would be coming _here_. Looking around the apartment, he realized he’d have to do a pretty thorough clean to get it up to Levi’s standards. Good thing he had nothing going on Sunday. The slight panic wound its way back into excitement though, thinking of Levi here, with him, in a much more casual and intimate setting than any of their previous dates. If he was coming over, would he stay over? Would they—he didn’t finish the thought, knowing he was getting ahead of himself in that regard. They’d barely even kissed, and who knew how fast or slow Levi liked to take things with dates. Eren banished the thought to the back of his mind and focused instead on planning the dinner as he took another bite of his forgotten burrito. He’d need to get ingredients no matter what he fixed since he and Armin had wiped their fridge during finals week and hadn’t had the chance to run to the store yet. There were a couple recipes he was considering, but he figured he should probably ask Levi’s opinion on the food. Plus he didn’t want to accidentally kill his date if he had any allergies.

_Do you have any allergies? Anything you don’t like to eat? Or like a lot?_

_No allergies. I’m not picky either. You choose, Mr. Chef._

Well that didn’t narrow it down any. If anything, having no restrictions made it harder to pick. Eren ran through a list of the last things he cooked in his head, thinking back on any recipes he’d seen online recently when nothing stood out to him. He considered texting his mom for suggestions when an idea struck him.

_Have you ever had Turkish food?_

***

Eren nervously paced his kitchen, checking and rechecking the temperature on his dishes to make sure they were still being kept warm, stirring the pots before him. Levi was late. Which, if it was anyone else, would probably be par for the course, but not Levi. Levi wasn’t a late person. They’d set their date for 6:30 to give him some buffer time after work, but it was nearing up on 7 with still no word from the man. If Armin hadn’t already left the apartment for the night, Eren was sure he’d be worrying his roommate’s ear off, but instead he was left to pace the space alone. After watching the clock count up five more minutes, he decided he couldn’t take it anymore, digging out his phone and asking Levi if he was on his way yet. Maybe he’d just lost track of time or forgotten that today was the day they were supposed to meet. As much as those thoughts hurt his feelings, it was nothing compared to the possibility that he would be stood up completely, especially after all the work he’d put into this date.

Saturday evening, he and Armin and Mikasa finally had their long-awaited reunion hangout, just the three of them, some much needed quality time with his friends. They ordered pizza and shot the shit, chatting, playing video games together, even just sitting in silence in each other’s company. Sunday Eren devoted to cleaning the house from top to bottom in anticipation of Levi’s arrival. Dusting, mopping, vacuuming, scouring parts behind the toilet he didn’t even know existed. He did three weeks’ worth of dirty laundry, throwing in his towels and sheets for good measure, and tidied and re-tidied the living room. He’d been exhausted that night from the extensive cleaning, but was content knowing that no matter how fastidious Levi’s cleanliness standards were, his place would meet and exceed them. Earlier today, he’d gone grocery shopping, buying his and Armin’s groceries for the week and ingredients for tonight, and the last two hours had been spent making himself presentable, cooking, and setting the table.

Eren forced himself out of the kitchen and onto the couch. There was a reason, he told himself, Levi wouldn’t ghost him like that, so it wasn’t worth worrying himself over. And if something had happened, well, he’d have plenty of damn good food all to himself and his apartment was cleaner than he’d ever seen it, so at least it all wasn’t a total waste. He tried to relax back into the cushions, but his body was wound tight, foot tapping against the floor. Patience never was his strong suit. He pulled out his phone again and scrolled through social media, but it didn’t do a very good job at distracting him. When he looked at his messages again, he saw Levi hadn’t even opened his text yet. He refreshed his twitter feed a few times before shooting up and pocketing his phone, annoyed nothing was relaxing him and figuring he should check on the food again, just in case.

He was almost to the kitchen when a knock at the door sent him scrambling backwards towards it, nearly eating shit in his rush to answer it. He opened the door to Levi, and although he had been expecting him, he felt slightly surprised seeing him actually standing there in his doorway. 

“Hi,” Eren greeted, a little breathless. Rather than reply, Levi placed a cool hand on his face before drawing him in for a quick and searing kiss that left Eren blinking when he pulled back.

“Let me in, it’s cold.” Oh, right. He’d been blocking the way in. He stepped to the side awkwardly, gesturing for Levi to enter. The man walked in and set about taking off his shoes while Eren shut the door. “Sorry I’m late. Got caught in a case meeting that ran way too fucking long and didn’t see your message until I was already driving here.” He righted himself and turned to face Eren.

“Ah gotcha, I’m uh,” he cleared his throat, rubbing a hand to the back of his neck, “just glad you’re here.” Levi raised a skeptical eyebrow, but decided not to comment on Eren’s obvious relief.

“Had to see if you’re actually as good a cook as you say you are.” Then he was thrusting a wine bottle Eren hadn’t noticed towards him. “I brought wine. Google said this one pairs well with Turkish food, so I hope it’s not shit.” Eren accepted the bottle, turning it to read Riesling on the label, not that that told him anything.

“Thanks Levi, but you didn’t have to bring anything.”

The man just shrugged. “I know.” They stood there for a moment before Eren’s stomach reminded him that there was a reason Levi was here, a reason that was probably getting cold and should be eaten soon.

“Food’s all ready, so I hope you’re hungry,” he said, heading towards the kitchen and hoping Levi would follow. Sitting the wine on the counter, he quickly searched through the cupboards for wine glasses and Armin’s corkscrew before retrieving them.

“Starving. What’d you cook? Smells good.” He eyed the pots and pans littering the stovetop curiously. Eren uncovered them, giving a couple a final stir before handing Levi a plate. He pretended not to notice when he caught the man scrutinizing the surface of the porcelain, no doubt making sure it was sufficiently clean.

“So this,” he pointed at the largest pot, “is manti. They’re like baby dumplings filled with beef and onion. And then this is like a garlicky yoghurt sauce and this is a butter sauce,” he added, gesturing to the two smaller pots on the burners. “Normally you just like drizzle both of them on top, but you won’t offend me if you put them on the side to try out. For sides, we’ve got şakşuka, a ragout type dish with eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and uh, oh fuck what else? Zucchini.” God, he’d just cooked this, how could he have already forgotten? Levi being here was really throwing him off his game, just like every other interaction with the man seemed to go. Speaking of forgotten, as he turned to look at Levi, he’d realized he’d forgotten one of his dishes on the counter. “Oh fuck, behind you is the kisir. It’s got wheat, peppers, onions, tomatoes, pomegranate, herbs, hazelnuts, just a whole bunch of stuff. Go ahead and help yourself.” Eren stepped back to allow Levi full access to the food, moving to the side to pour them both glasses of wine. He wasn’t much of a wine drinker, usually preferring beer or a harder mixed drink, but he didn’t want to not drink the bottle that Levi had graciously brought. He’d tried some of Armin’s wines before and knew he didn’t hate it, so he was hoping this one wouldn’t be too bad, not that he mistrusted Levi’s judgement.

When he turned to grab himself some food as well, he nearly bumped into Levi, who asked “Forks?”

“On the table. Same with spoons and knives, although now that I think about it, I don’t think we need knives for this.” Levi gave a small snort that sounded mostly like a laugh before reaching around him to grab a wine glass and walking towards the table. Eren let out a sigh through his nose. He needed to relax. Grabbing his own plate, he dished himself up the food, filling his plate—it’d been a while since he’d made Turkish food and he was going to eat his fill of it. He called out, “Do you want anything to drink besides wine? We’ve got water, milk, some sodas.”

“I’ll take a water,” Levi replied. Eren retrieved the Keurig from the fridge and two glasses from the cabinet, figuring he might as well pour himself a glass while he was at it, and if anything, it’d give him something else to drink if he didn’t like the wine. Walking the two full glasses over to the table, taking extra precaution not to spill any on himself, or worse, Levi, he went back to grab his plate and wine glass. The other man had already tucked into his food by the time he sat down. Eren scooped up some şakşuka with his fork, watching out of the corner of his eye as Levi ate his food, trying to gauge his thoughts on the food. Apparently, he wasn’t subtle enough since Levi lowered his own fork down as he was in the middle of raising it to take another bite, pinning Eren with a stare.

“Don’t tell me you’ve got some sort of feeding kink.” And there went Eren’s face, bright red as the tomatoes he’d chopped up earlier.

“Jesus Christ, Levi, no! I was trying to figure out if you liked the food or not!”

The raven only smirked at him. “You could’ve asked me instead of watching me eat like a weirdo.” Rather than answer, Eren stabbed a dumpling with force and shoved it into his mouth, scowling as he chewed. “I’ve never had any other Turkish food to compare it to,” Levi continued, as if he’d never made the feeder comment, “but this is good.” The praise made Eren come out of skulking.

“Yeah? It’s my mom’s recipe, although I guess recipe is a bit of an exaggeration. She always said to measure with the heart, so I didn’t have exact directions or measurements. But these were all my favorite foods when I was a kid, so I’ve pretty much got it memorized.”

“Color me impressed then. I didn’t think you’d be this good of a cook.” He wasn’t sure if he should be happy Levi called him a good cook or slightly insulted that he didn’t think he would be one.

“You can thank my mom for that too. I told you before I had a lot of anger issues as a kid, and so when I couldn’t get to the pool to burn off that energy swimming, my mom had me help her cook. I’d get to punch and knead dough, stir things, cut up veggies, which, now that I think about it, giving an angry kid a knife probably wasn’t the best idea.” They shared a laugh. “But it worked. Cooking became a stress reliever. Armin and Mikasa give me shit because I’ll cook when I want to procrastinate on schoolwork. They had to drag me out of the kitchen a couple times during finals week.”

“I don’t see why they’d complain. Free food? Fuck it, come to my place next time you don’t want to write an essay.” The offer was made in jest, but it was one that Eren wouldn’t mind taking Levi up on.

“I’ll hold you to that. I bet your kitchen is way bigger than mine. Plus, unless you’ve got a secret roommate you haven’t told me about, you don’t have to share the space.”

“No, no roommate,” Levi replied, taking a drink from his glass. “Though speaking of, I’m guessing yours isn’t here.”

“Yeah, Armin went over to his girlfriend’s place. Why, you planning on murdering me now that no one’s home?” he teased.

“Damn, you foiled my plan,” then he shrugged. “You talk about him a lot, but I’ve never met him.” Eren hadn’t realized, no, hadn’t even considered, that Levi might want to meet his friends. Of course he’d thought about Levi meeting them, but didn’t know it was something the other man _also_ wanted. The realization had him welling up with an emotion he couldn’t quite place.

“He actually already had plans to go over there before I told him we were having dinner, so it’s not like I kicked him out or anything. But yeah, if you want to, I’d love for you to meet my friends sometime.”

“Sure. I’d extend the same invitation, but you already know my friends.” Eren rolled his eyes. Sure, he worked at the rec with Levi’s friends, but it wasn’t like he really knew any of them well, outside of Hanji. The rest he’d say the occasional hello to or make small talk with when he was on his way to and from shifts, and there ended the extent of getting to know them.

“Ok, but I don’t really _know_ them, especially not outside of work. It’d be nice to hang out with them. If that’s cool with you,” he quickly amended.

Levi waved a hand. “I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I wasn’t okay with it. Besides, I’m sure the fuckers would love the opportunity to talk shit about me.”

“Oh, shit talking Levi? Now I definitely have to meet your friends.”

“Nope, fuck off, forget I said anything.”

As they ate, Eren finally took a tentative sip of the wine. It was fruity and acidic, but not very sweet and he had to fight all of the muscles in his face to keep a neutral expression as he swallowed. He’d drank worse things, and honestly it wasn’t terrible, but he doubted he’d willingly drink it again.

Unfortunately for him, Levi seemed to have eagle eyes about everything and noticed it was the first time he’d picked up his glass. “How is it?” he asked, nodding his head at the wine. “Notice I asked you instead of staring at you.”

“Ha ha,” he said drily. “I don’t know, I’m not much of a wine drinker. Wine-y?”

Rolling his eyes, Levi replied, “Should’ve figured you’d be more into beer. I’ll bring a six-pack next time.” Any hint of a continuing date always thrilled Eren, and hearing the words ‘next time’ was no exception.

“How’d you figure?”

“Your last name’s German. I don’t think I need to connect the dots for you.” Then as if sensing Eren’s brewing question, he added, “Hanji told me it was Jaeger. Though I’m guessing by the food and first name, you’re also Turkish.”

“Damn, yeah, you got me. Dad’s side is German, but like super distantly so you can’t really count it for anything. My mom’s parents immigrated from Turkey when they were younger and had her here, hence, like you said, the name and the food. I can speak a little bit too, Turkish I mean, but not very much and I’m probably rusty. I understand a lot more than I can speak, and I can’t write for shit.”

“Yeah, your texts the other night proved that,” Levi said slyly, scooping up the last bits of food on his plate. Eren had already finished, cleared plate a testament to it, since he’d practically shoved food into his mouth every chance he got in between speaking.

“I was drunk! I’m not that bad. So what about you? Where does the Ackerman clan hail from?” Levi just shrugged and took a drink from his wine glass. When Eren kept looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer, he sighed.

“You forget the dead mom sob story already?” Oh god, oh fuck, he kind of did. Obviously, he knew, but hadn’t thought about it when he asked what he thought was a harmless question. Levi chuckled at the way Eren’s eyebrows shot up his forehead while his face grew red. “Relax brat, I’m joking. But no, I don’t really know and never gave enough of a shit to find out. I’m sure Mikasa knows her side, but with a missing sperm donor, I’m shit out of luck for the other half. Like I said though, I don’t really care.”

Wanting a distraction from the awkward situation he inadvertently created, he realized Levi’s plate was now clear, so he made to stand and reached for the other man’s dish. “If you’re done, I can start cleaning up.” His plan was blocked by a hand moving the plate out of his reach.

“I’ll help,” Levi replied, standing and taking off his suit jacket to hang it over the chair.

“C’mon Levi, you’re my guest.” He held out a hand expectantly, but Levi brushed past him, heading towards the kitchen with his plate and wine glass.

“Your thing is cooking: I enjoy cleaning. It’ll go faster with two people anyways. I’ll wash while you put the food away.” Shit, he’d left the food out on the counter the whole time. Levi did have a point, and the quicker they finished cleaning, the sooner they could settle on the couch with a movie.

Eren trailed behind him towards the kitchen, setting his own plate and glass in the sink while Levi leaned against the counter, rolling up his shirt sleeves. “Okay, okay, you have a point.” He eyed the leftover food in the various pots and pans before pulling out some Tupperware he hoped would fit everything. Plopping the sauces and sides and dumplings into their individual containers, he popped the lids on and set about transferring everything to the fridge. When he finished, he turned to see two pots were missing from the stove top, only to turn further and realize that Levi had rinsed the plates and loaded them into the dishwasher only to begin scrubbing on Eren’s cookware. “Woah, hey, you really don’t have to do that. I’ll wash them later.”

Levi shot him a glare and continued to rinse the pot in hand, then hauled it into the drying rack and nodded his head towards it. “Or you can dry them and then you’ll be done,” he said, already scrubbing vigorously on the second pot. Without reply, Eren picked up the dish towel and began to dry off the pot. He watched Levi as he worked. The force of scouring the pot really accentuated his arm muscles, and he looked oddly domestic in the rubber gloves he’d donned from under the sink. Eren thought he looked cute, although Levi would probably kill him if he said so.

“Isn’t it a little early for that?” Levi interrupted his train of thought, and for a moment Eren thought he’d been caught staring. He followed the raven’s gaze out into their living room and to the Christmas tree that was to the side of the couch.

“No?” Eren answered, “It’s December, I think that’s when most people put their tree up.” Actually, he and Armin had set theirs up right after Thanksgiving, when it was technically November.

Levi shrugged. “I suppose. I don’t usually decorate.” Eren was flabbergasted—who the fuck didn’t decorate for Christmas? But for once in his life, he actually paused to think before opening his mouth.

“Oh, are you Jewish?” That made the man snort as he passed him another pot to dry.

“No. Just don’t see the point in decorating.” And then Eren was back to flabbergasted. Christmas was his favorite holiday. What wasn’t there to like? The lights, the food, the time with family, the cookies, the tree, he could go on and on.

“Oh my god, you’re a scrooge.”

“I’m not a fucking scrooge, brat. I think I’m allowed to do what I want on my birthday.” It took a second for the puzzle pieces to click into place.

“Your birthday’s on Christmas? Dude that…yeah that kind of sucks.” The small smirk on Levi’s face told him he already knew. “But that’s not an excuse to not put up lights or even a tree! Everything gets all dark and gloomy during the winter, decorations make it feel brighter, cozier.” Levi shut off the water, turning, hands on his hips, to fix Eren with a pointed look. It would’ve been intimidating if it weren’t for the bright yellow rubber gloves he was still wearing.

The man stood there for a moment before saying “If I agree to let you come decorate my place, will you get off my ass about it?”

“I’m free next weekend,” Eren supplied in agreement. Levi just nodded and turned on the tap again, resuming finishing up the last of the cookware. They washed and dried and chatted idly, solidifying their plans to meet later on in the week. Soon Levi was passing him the final pot to dry, but rather than wipe it down, he left it in the drying rack to air dry. As Levi was removing the rubber gloves, Eren bent down, placing a quick peck on the other man’s cheek. Levi raised an eyebrow, questioning. “Thanks for your help with the dishes,” Eren clarified.

Shucking off the other glove and draping them in the sink, Levi responded, “No problem. Movie?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter in 2021 lets goooooooo
> 
> Two kissies in this chapter, how many will there be in the next one? ;)
> 
> I’ve written this story in Eren’s POV and plan to stick with it, but how would y'all feel about a Levi POV chapter at some point in time? Yes, no, maybe so? I thought it’d be fun to mess around with his pov, but part of me also wants to keep it cohesive with a singular pov so idk. Maybe as like a one-shot extra? Much to think about lmao 
> 
> Thanks again to all you lovely readers!! You are the best, and I hope you all had a happy new year!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Netflix and Chill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder to check the content rating and tags ;)

“Yeah, movie, show, documentary, whatever you’re feeling. But uh, do you wanna borrow some sweats or something? Not that I don’t like seeing you in a suit, but I don’t know if that’d be comfortable to sit on the couch in.” Regular suit, swimsuit, there wasn’t much Eren didn’t like seeing Levi in. Well, he’d really like to see him naked, but he was getting ahead of himself there. He hadn’t paid much attention to what Levi was wearing when he first came in, too relieved to see him at all and busy playing host to give the man more than a cursory glance. His suit cloth was such a dark navy he’d thought it was black, and god, he must have gotten them tailored with the way those pants clung to his thighs.

“Sure. Get me out of this damn monkey suit.” Levi loosened his tie and popped the top button open in a move that was entirely casual but had Eren gulping.

He turned away before Levi could catch him staring again, heading off in the direction of his room and talking while walking. “Do you have a size preference? I’m sure we’re probably close in size, but you’re a lot—”

“What, shorter than you?” Levi interrupted from behind him right as Eren reached his bedroom door, monotone voice making him jump. He hadn’t expected the raven to follow him and whirled around to face him.

“More muscular than I am, was what I was going to say.” He poked at one of Levi’s folded biceps. “You’re pretty beefy.”

“Nice save, brat.”

Eren groaned, fumbling for the doorknob behind him and escaping into his room. “Is it so hard to believe that that’s what I was going to say? You’re not even that short.”

“Medium or large, either is fine,” he replied, disregarding Eren’s question in favor of his earlier one. Levi followed him in, stopping at the doorjamb to lean against it and survey the room while Eren headed to his dresser, rifling around in the drawers. It felt weird to have Levi in his bedroom, and he was immensely thankful that he’d had the foresight to make his bed this morning. He didn’t pay that much attention to what exactly he was grabbing, just making sure that it semi matched, and pulled out a red shirt and grey sweats. He kicked his drawers shut and crossed the room, but then doubled back to his closet and grabbed a hanger, before finally stopping in front of Levi.

“The bathroom’s that door right there,” he said with a point of his finger as he held out the stack of fabric with his other hand. “I got you a hanger too, so your suit won’t get wrinkled.” Levi nodded wordlessly and headed off to change. Once the bathroom door was shut, Eren let out a small sigh, glancing around the room again to make sure there wasn’t anything embarrassing he’d accidentally left out that Levi could’ve seen—to his relief, there wasn’t. He killed the lights and shut the door again, flopping on the couch once he’d wandered his way over to it. Snatching up the remote, he turned on the tv and queued up both Netflix and Hulu, idly scrolling through both to see if anything jumped out at him. As he clicked through trailers, his mind was elsewhere, mainly thinking about the man in the bathroom. Although maybe not the smoothest, their date seemed to be going well, at least to him, and he hoped it would stay that way for the rest of the night.

Levi emerged from the bathroom a little bit later, suit dangling from the hanger he held up, and walked over to the kitchen chair to add his jacket to his hanging ensemble. The grey joggers Eren had given him seemed to fit, although the legs were definitely a bit long with the way they bunched at the ankles. The same couldn’t be said about the shirt—it wasn’t too small per se, but Levi’s broad shoulders filled out the fabric in a way Eren’s lankier frame didn’t. The words “Maria State Swimming and Diving” were quite literally stretched across his chest, but otherwise the old swim team shirt seemed to fit ok. The sight of Levi in his clothes made Eren happier than he would have expected.

“Do you want a bigger shirt? That one’s one I’ve had for a while, so it’s probably shrunk a little.” Levi hung the hanger on the back of the kitchen chair, joining Eren on the couch.

“Nah, it’s fine. So, what’d you pick to watch?”

“Oh, I hadn’t picked anything. I figured we could choose together. I’ve got Netflix and Hulu, and if you want it, Mikasa lets Armin and I steal her Disney+.”

Scoffing, Levi replied. “No Disney shit.” They scrolled through the landing pages of the two streaming services, flipping back and forth and debating what to watch. They mutually decided a show was out, too long Levi had said, settling for a movie like they’d originally planned to. Eren suggested a scary movie that Levi quickly shot down, citing that he’ll watch them but didn’t enjoy them since “the world’s already fucked up enough, you don’t need to add ghosts and shit to it.” When Eren called him a scaredy cat, Levi punched him in the arm.

Levi pointed out a true crime documentary that left Eren confused. “Levi, you just came back from work, do you really want to watch a movie about your job during your free time?” Levi still said yes, but Eren vetoed it.

Eren picked a period drama that Levi rejected. “God Eren, are you a fifty-year-old woman? No Pride and Prejudice.”

“It’s a classic!” They went back and forth for a while until finally, both sick of indecision, they settled for a generic action comedy with decent reviews.

20 minutes in and Eren was already bored. The movie wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t anything special either—most of the jokes either fell flat or merely earned a huff of half laughter out the nose, the action scenes were common ones seen a million times over that looked overly scripted, and he was pretty sure he’d already forgotten all the main characters’ names. He’d seen better acting in porn. He tried to side eye Levi’s reactions, gauging if he was as bored as Eren was, but the man’s eyes were trained on the screen. His expression was neutral, but that was pretty much how Levi’s face always looked so it didn’t tell him much. Then Eren eyed the space between them. They sat close but not touching, about a foot of cushion separating them, him in the middle of the couch and Levi in the corner, relaxed and leaning his head into the hand he’d propped up on the arm rest.

Eren wanted to close that space but wasn’t sure how. They were just far enough apart that he wouldn’t be able to put an arm around Levi without insane amounts of awkward stretching, so that was essentially out. He would go for a handhold, but the hand that wasn’t propping up his head was in his lap, and no way was Eren going to make a random grab anywhere near the man’s crotch. He supposed he could try to slowly wiggle his way closer, although he wasn’t sure how to do that without it being extremely obvious. That really only left him one option.

“Gotta pee,” Eren said by way of explanation, standing from the couch. Levi grunted an affirmation and he made his escape into the bathroom. He didn’t actually have to pee, but he made himself go anyways, figuring he might as well since that’s what he said he’d be doing. He flushed, zipped back up, and washed his hands thoroughly in the sink, turning the tap off then back on as he decided to splash his face too. Eren wiped his hands and face, then stared at himself in the mirror, commencing a mini pep talk. _C’mon Jaeger, you’re not a virgin, you can do this._

He strode out of the bathroom and back to the couch with more confidence, settling himself back in a little closer to Levi than he was before. Perfect. He’d put himself in prime position, but now came the hard part of actually following through. Eren slowly crept his arm up, keeping it close to his body to avoid detection, and had it raised up to his head, ready to extend, when Levi turned to look at him, eyebrow raised. Frozen, he sat there for a moment before sheepishly glancing away and slowly lowering his arm back down beside him. So much for that then. Levi rolled his eyes and snorted out a laugh, and there Eren’s ego went, embarrassed. But then an arm was reaching behind him, pulling him downwards, and Eren found himself pressed against Levi’s chest and shoulder, leaning on him, Levi’s arm wrapped firmly around him.

“You’re not gonna scare me off, so it’s not like you have to pussyfoot around me,” came the rumbled response above him, although Eren more so felt it from the chest next to him than heard it. “Just make a choice and don’t regret it. I’ll tell you to fuck off if I don’t like it, and I trust that you’ll do the same to me.”

“Okay, yeah, sorry.” When Levi put it like that, it all seemed simple. Of course his brain had to overcomplicate things.

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for, brat.” They left it at that, Eren slowly relaxing into the body next to him and refocusing back on the movie he’d ignored for the past half an hour. It didn’t quite work—he still didn’t know anyone’s names, but he was at least able to piece the plot together despite his previous inattention, although that was largely in part to how predictable the movie was. Soon enough, his attention was waning and Eren found himself more focused on who he was leaning against. Levi’s body emitted a soft warmth, comforting, comfortable. If he looked upwards, he could catch one eye and the side of the man’s mouth, but looking to the side gave him the perfect view of the smooth column of Levi’s neck. God, he wanted to kiss it. He swallowed, mouth suddenly dry, and debated doing so until he remembered Levi’s words.

So before he could over think it anymore, he tilted his head, pressing a small kiss to the pale skin of Levi’s neck. A small exhale of air was the only reaction he got from the man. Emboldened, Eren did it again. And again. And again. One where shirt collar met neck. One nearly under the jaw. One right up by the ear. Another so close to Levi’s undercut the short hairs tickled his nose. He went to add another, but the skin moved on him, and Eren pulled back to watch Levi’s eyes meet his.

“You’re distracting from the movie, you know.” He didn’t sound all that disappointed. Levi’s body turned completely, and then they were facing each other straight on. His face was impassive as always, but there was something seeming to lurk beneath it, something he could only catch a glimpse of in the other man’s eyes, something he hoped was the same something Eren was feeling.

“Didn’t seem like you were complaining.” A beat.

“I wasn’t.” An invitation.

Slowly, testing the waters, Eren raised a tentative hand, cupping along Levi’s jaw. There it was: the almost imperceptible feeling of Levi leaning into the touch. He slid his hand farther back, fingers brushing through short silken hair, gently pulling forward and leaning in, eyes fluttering shut. Their lips met but for a second, pulling away briefly before joining again with more force, more need. Eren tilted his head to get a better angle and felt a hand tangling in his hair, another slowly sliding up his chest and over his back. He leaned into the kiss, their lips moving together slow, soft. His free hand knotted itself in the fabric of Levi’s t-shirt, drawing him ever closer, closer, not close enough. Fuck, he wanted more.

Eren slid a quick swipe of his tongue against the seam of the other man’s lips, wanting to deepen the kiss and explore more of the mouth pressed to his. Then he was kissing on air, eyes flying open, Levi’s hand pressed on his chest pushing him off. He scrambled back, but Levi’s other hand still on his back held him in place.

Before any apologies or questions could fall from his mouth, Levi asked, “Mouthwash?” Eren was thrown for a loop, taking a second to come up with an answer.

“Uh, yeah, in the bathroom…” And then with abject horror, hand flying over his mouth, he added. “Oh fuck, does my breath reek?” Levi seemed to find Eren’s discomfort hilarious, if the smirk on his face was anything to go by. He released his grip on Eren, standing and holding out a hand that the brunet took and stood as well.

“We ate the same thing, dumbass—if yours does, mine does. Anyways, I’m not making out with you until both our mouths are clean. As good as your cooking was, I don’t want to taste it on your tongue.” 

“Fair point.” They made their way to the bathroom side by side. Eren still thought it was a little strange that Levi was _this_ strict about hygiene, but hey, if it meant he got to kiss him more, he wasn’t about to complain. He lugged the bottle out from its place underneath the sink and set it on the counter.

“Don’t tell me you drink straight out of it,” Levi drawled, eyeing the bottle warily.

Pulling over a cup that was off to side of the counter, Eren sassed, “Oh ye of little faith.” After a second, he added, “I should probably grab you one. Be right back,” before speeding off to the kitchen. He opened the cabinets and snatched up the first cup he saw, hurrying back.

“Thanks,” Levi replied when Eren handed him the cup. But then when he actually looked at it, “Really, Minnie mouse?”

“What, Minnie’s cool. Or are you more of a Mickey guy?” The man didn’t deign to reply, instead working on opening the mouthwash’s cap and pouring them each a shot’s worth of liquid into their respective cups. Eren held his up in a mock toast and Levi clinked his against it, then they were sipping and sloshing it around. Eren studied their reflections in the mirror, watching as Levi’s cheeks puffed out from swishing the mouthwash around, thinking he looked like an angry hamster. He raised a finger to poke at a distended cheek, but Levi smacked his hand down before he could even get close. Although he did use the mouthwash semi-regularly, Eren wasn’t a consistent enough user to remember how long he was supposed to swill the liquid around, so he was really banking on Levi knowing the proper time to stop and watching him for cues. When he thought he wouldn’t be able to stand the burning sensation anymore, Levi bent double and spat into the sink. Eren waited for him to move out of the way and spat his own mouthful out, quickly rinsing out the sink.

“All clean.” He flashed a grin at Levi to prove his point. The other man rolled his eyes and, to Eren’s surprise, grabbed his hand, hauling him out of the bathroom and back towards the living room, making his grin grow even wider. Looks like he wasn’t the only one excited.

Once they’d returned to their previous spots, it was like they hadn’t kissed before, both just staring at each other and unsure of how to return to the momentum they’d interrupted earlier. Should he just go for it, jump right back in? Or were they going to start from the beginning? Levi raised an eyebrow at him, as if to say, ‘what are you waiting for?’ That was all the encouragement Eren needed, hands finding their way into their previous positions and body pressing forward, pressing into Levi, pressing them both back into the cushions. It was a hard kiss, too much forward momentum on Eren’s end that betrayed his eagerness until he fixed it by backing off a smidge and there, there it was perfect.

Just like he’d been waiting to do, Eren snuck an eager tongue out to the press of Levi’s lips which opened slightly, just enough for his own tongue to prod against Eren’s lips in return. He could taste the spearmint on the other man’s breath, his no doubt tasting the same, but it thrilled him nevertheless. Another small push and he was inside, licking his way around Levi’s mouth, tapping against sharp teeth and dancing around the other man’s tongue. Levi seemed to enjoy it, his hand tightening its hold on Eren’s hair as they kissed, and god, was Eren enjoying it too. Then Levi’s tongue was poking its way inside, tongues rolling and shifting together, and just when he thought it couldn’t get better, Levi bit his bottom lip, pressure hard enough to border the line of pain and pleasure, pulling back to stretch the skin in a way that had an involuntary moan slipping from his mouth. Already feeling his face going red, Eren pulled back as soon as Levi released his hold on his lip, sitting up from where he had been nearly on top of the other man.

Clearing his throat, he mumbled, “Uh, sorry, that was uh…” then trailing off. Great, now he seemed overeager. Eren knew where he hoped this was leading to, but wasn’t sure if Levi shared the same sentiments and didn’t want to pressure him into anything. A hand closing around the fabric of his shirt and dragging him back down pulled him from his thoughts.

“Do it again,” Levi’s deep voice whispered in his ear, sending a shiver down his back. And then Levi’s mouth was on his neck, biting teasingly, not enough to leave a mark but just enough to sting a bit, and Eren’s pants were suddenly a little tighter than before. Fuck, he didn’t think he had a pain kink, but maybe he’d have to rethink that. Or maybe it was just Levi, the way his strong arms were holding him in place, teeth nipping at his neck. Eren shifted, trying to adjust to chase after Levi’s lips again, when he felt something push slightly into his leg, a hard and thick something that made him pause. Jesus Christ, Levi was hard. Eren had been getting there, dick at half-mast after their little make out session a moment ago, but the feeling of the other man’s length against his thigh had him shooting to full mast. Levi was hard, was hard for _him._ He caught the other man’s lips again, pulling him into a searing lip lock, distracting him while he used his thigh to grind down on Levi’s dick, making him groan into Eren’s mouth.

“God, _fuck,_ Eren.” Levi grunted the words in between kisses, pulling away just enough to get them out before diving back in with more heat than before. Eren kept rocking his leg into Levi, intent on driving him crazy, wanting to see him lose the composed look he always wore for once, to wreck him the same way the other man wrecked him. Then a hand was on his own cock, gripping him through his jeans hard enough that another moan ripped from his throat before he could even try to stop it. Eren sat up, essentially in Levi’s lap now, and gazed down at the man underneath him, Levi staring back with half-lidded eyes, both of them panting.

“Can I?” he asked, slowly, teasingly tracing a finger around the outline of Levi’s cock. Now that he got a good look at it instead of feeling it pressed against his leg, it was a good size from what he could tell through the fabric, and definitely thick. Humming, he gave it an experimental stroke through his sweatpants, Levi’s eyes shutting and hips bucking just the slightest bit.

“Don’t be a cock tease. If you’re gonna do it, do it.” Eren snorted. Looks like he affected Levi more than the man tried to let on.

“I don’t know, this is pretty fun,” he drawled, fingers dancing over the tented fabric again, the hips beneath him stuttering again. He ghosted them along the outline of it again, then pressed his palm against firmly against the clothed erection and dragged upwards.

“Eren,” Levi ground out between clenched teeth, already attempting to sit up and take over, but a hand on his chest pressed him back to the cushions.

“Alright, alright. Calm down, Mr. Impatient.” And he’d thought he was supposed to be the one that had trouble waiting. Before Levi could complain any further, Eren gave a yank to the sweats, pulling down both pants and underwear in one go. The man’s cock sprang free, bobbing gently against his stomach, and just like he’d guessed, it was impressively thick. Eren wrapped a tanned hand around it, giving an experimental and almost torturously slow tug to the velvety skin, brushing against neatly trimmed black hair that trailed thinly upwards until it disappeared under his shirt. He increased the pace a little, thumb pressing against the sensitive spot underneath the glans on every upstroke, while his other hand wandered up Levi’s stomach, pushing up the fabric of his t-shirt to run his fingers appreciatively over the dips and planes of muscles. He’d ogled these muscles every day at work for the last few months and now he finally was able to get his hands on them. Noticing his exploration, Levi decided to forgo the shirt entirely, pulling it off and tossing it onto the coffee table. A hand in his own shirt pulled him back down on top of the man and straight into a liplock, teeth nipping and tongues intertwining. Eren sped his fist up, technique getting a bit sloppy now that he was distracted but making up for it in friction and enthusiasm. Levi would occasionally break away to grunt out an expletive, and Christ, seeing him come undone like that, groaning beneath him, was driving him crazy. If he had to wait much longer, he’d be whipping his own dick out.

As if he read his mind, Levi pulled back and said, “Take your fucking pants off.” Releasing his grip on Levi’s cock, Eren shot upright and nearly fell off the couch in his rush to stand. He popped the button on his jeans, shimmying his way out of both them and his boxers before following suit with his shirt, figuring it’d be weird to be pants-less while still wearing a shirt. He wasn’t quite sure where or for what Levi wanted him, hesitating for a second while he figured out where to go, but the other man made that decision for him, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back where he was a moment ago, other hand grabbing at Eren’s ass to reposition his hips.

“So what do you want me to—” he started, the words dying in his throat when Levi wrapped a hand around both of their cocks. Levi gave them a few slow starter strokes, but, seemingly unsatisfied with the friction, removed his hand to lick a long, wet stripe across his palm. The action was so unlike the mental image of Levi Eren had in his head that, had he not already been on his knees, they surely would’ve buckled at the debauchery before him. Levi didn’t hesitate to pick up the pace once he’d replaced his hand, palm gliding smoothly over both their cocks now, just the right amount of grip and speed to make Eren wonder if he’d be able to last as long as he wanted to with the way Levi was stroking them. Well, if he was gonna go down quick, he was damn determined to bring the other man down with him.

Eren leaned forward, careful not to sandwich Levi’s hand between them, and latched onto where neck met shoulder, mouthing at the pale skin there. He let his hands wander, one traveling up across Levi’s chest and into his hair, skimming lightly over the buzzed part and tangling into the longer strands, while his other descended, squeezing a muscled thigh then dipping between their bodies to cup Levi’s balls. The way his stroke suddenly stuttered made Eren smirk. They kept at it, bodies and hands and tongues stroking, grinding, intertwining. At least until the hand around their cocks slowed its pace and Eren looked up.

“’m close,” Levi explained, voice somehow both deeper and breathier than usual, “You have a tissue box or—”

“I got it.” But rather than getting up off the couch, Eren simply slid himself out of Levi’s grip and down his body, coming to stop directly in front of his cock and knocking the other man’s hand aside to take over. Levi let out a groan at the change, Eren’s hand now moving faster than his was earlier.

“Brat, are you seriously going to—”

“Yeah, it’s no big deal. I want to. Just tell me when you’re close again.” He twisted his wrist with every stroke, intent on driving Levi over the edge, and goddamn it was hot being this close to the man and watching him come undone, especially since he was the one doing it. Eren knew he wouldn’t be far behind.

A hand suddenly carding through his hair was his first warning, Levi huffing out “Shit, gonna cum,” was his second. Then without a warning of his own, Eren closed his mouth around the head of Levi’s cock, shallowing bobbing his head while his hand continued its brutal pace. After just a few more strokes and many muttered expletives coming from above him, Levi’s release hit his tongue. He kept stroking him through his orgasm, albeit pace significantly slowed now, making sure to catch it all before pulling off finally with a muted pop. When Eren sat back up, wiping his lips with the back of his hand, he found Levi had thrown an arm over his eyes, chest still heaving.

“Good?” As in, was it good, but also, are you good?

“Yeah. Fuck,” he watched his throat bob with a swallow, forearm lifting just enough for Levi to peer out from underneath, “You got any tissues?”

“Be right back.” Eren retreated into the bathroom, snatching up the box of Kleenex they kept on the back of the toilet and hurrying back to the living room. It felt weird to just openly walk around naked in the apartment—years of swim had assured that he had no qualms about getting naked anywhere in front of anyone, but it felt wrong to do it in the space he usually shared with his roommate, so he didn’t waste time returning to the couch. He found Levi sitting upright when he came back, and he appreciatively took the box from him, grabbing a few tissues to start wiping his dick off. Speaking of dicks, Eren’s own was a little neglected. He sat down on the other end of the couch, intending to remedy that problem with his own hand.

“Oi,” Levi called out approximately two seconds after Eren had started to jerk himself off, stalling his hand mid jerk. “Wait a second and I’ll repay the favor.” Oh. _Oh_. He’d assumed the worst at first, thinking for whatever reason Levi was pissed at him, but this was better, way better. He watched as the man finished cleaning up his dick, pulled his boxer briefs and sweatpants back on, then tossed his tissues and sat back on the couch. “Probably should have asked you this before, but someone was being a horny brat. You been tested anytime recently?”

It took a second for the question to work itself through Eren’s lust addled brain. “Uh, over the summer, like June, I think. I’m clean”

“Fucked anyone since then?” God, he forgot how blunt Levi could be sometimes. The man certainly didn’t beat around the bush.

“No.”

“Good.” And then he was sliding off the couch and onto the floor, putting himself between Eren’s knees and spreading them open. Oh god, oh fuck, he’d just been expecting a reciprocated hand job, not _this._ But it wasn’t like he was complaining, not with a shirtless Levi between his legs looking up at him like that. “I’m not fucking swallowing, so you better give me a warning before you cum or I’ll kill you.” The threat of violence didn’t even kill his boner.

“Got it. I’ll let you know.” With a final nod, Levi leaned forward, using one hand to grab Eren’s dick at the base to steady it, and licked up the entire length before wrapping his lips around the head. Eren dug his nails into the cushions, resisting the urge to buck up into the wet heat and watching as Levi worked his mouth over his cock. Shit, even just watching would be enough to send him over the edge soon—because goddamn did Levi look absolutely sinful like that—and that wasn’t even taking into account how good it felt, tongue twisting and teasing and rubbing as he worked Eren over. Levi ran the flat of his tongue over the underside of his glans and, fuck, it wasn’t fair how good he was at this. Eren carded a hand through raven hair, pushing the fringe out of Levi’s face, wanting to get a better view. Levi side-eyed him and slowed down slightly, probably waiting to see if he would turn out to be one of those asshole head-pushers, but when Eren merely ran his hands gently through the strands, he resumed his pace before suddenly taking Eren’s cock all the way to the base. Eren’s head flew back, eyes squeezing shut, groaning.

“Jesus Christ, Levi. Fuck.” The man seemed pretty pleased with himself and the reactions he’d garnered, humming as he pulled back up and continuing his ministrations, laving away at the cock in his mouth. Eren could feel the pleasure building, pooling, but with how good it felt, he didn’t want it to end. A particularly firm stroke of the tongue up the underside of his cock and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to last any longer. “Pull off, I’m getting close.”

Levi gave a last bob of his head before pulling off and reaching behind him for the tissue box he’d left on the coffee table. He pulled off a couple and cupped them around the top of Eren’s dick with one hand, resuming getting him off with his other hand. The pace Levi set was punishing, bringing Eren closer to the edge and with another twist of the wrist, sending him over. Eren came with a long groan, head tipping back against the cushions as he released into the tissues cupped in Levi’s hand. Eyes closed, he sat there, basking in the boneless feeling of afterglow, wanting nothing more than to just flop over and cuddle up to Levi. A rustling had him cracking one eye open, watching as Levi stood from in between his legs.

“We need to clean up.”

Eye sliding closed again, he let out a whine. “C’mon Levi, can’t you wait a minute?” A soft kick to his calf had him finally opening both eyes.

“If you ever want a repeat of that, brat, come clean up.” With a groan, Eren stumbled to a stand, peeling off the tissues stuck to his dick and using a new one to wipe himself clean. He really would rather lay down for a minute, but it wasn’t worth risking never having Levi blow him like that again to do so. The other man headed off to the bathroom, Eren following closely behind once he’d put his boxers and jeans back on. Levi washed his hands, Eren repeating the action once the sink was free, and Levi poured them both another cup of mouthwash. That part Eren was a little grateful for—jizz wasn’t the best taste to have in your mouth. After swishing and spitting for the second time that evening, they returned to the living room, each of them donning their previously discarded shirts. Eren sat down and grabbed the remote, shutting off the movie that had been scrolling through credits for who knows how long.

“Guess we kind of missed the ending.” Levi just scoffed, joining him on the couch.

“It was a shitty movie, so I doubt we missed anything worthwhile,” he replied, making Eren snort out a laugh.

“You’re not wrong.” He laid his head on Levi’s shoulder, looking up at him, Levi’s hand coming up to scratch affectionately at his scalp. “Thanks for uh, you know. It was good. Great. I had a lot of fun.”

Nimble fingers continued to comb through his hair. “Glad you enjoyed it. I did too.”

“I didn’t expect you to uh, well I didn’t think you’d be the kind of person to like, uhm…”

“Suck dick?”

“Yeah.” The shoulder underneath his head shrugged.

“Doesn’t bother me unless your dick is fucking gross. I didn’t expect you to swallow either, so I guess we’re both full of surprises.” Eren burst out laughing, his body shaking with the action at the blunt comment. Levi griped that it wasn’t even that funny, making Eren laugh harder, and the only way he was able to make him finally stop laughing was by kissing him quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some smut to make up for my absence lmao 
> 
> Sorry for the late posting! Life got insanely busy out of nowhere, and although it's not my usual post day, I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer for this chapter. I've had 6 job interviews in the past two weeks, and although I'm extremely grateful and excited about that, it's left me super drained and without a lot of free time to write, hence the delay. Hopefully another chapter will never be this late!   
> I might have to switch to posting every two weeks (which I'm kind of already doing lol) if things stay busy, but we'll have to see. But never fear, even if posts are late, I promise I'm seeing this thing through to the end! 
> 
> Anyways, we finally have smut!! Despite reading a lot, I've never written any, so this was definitely a learning experience lmao. Hope you all enjoyed it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Thanks as always to everyone reading / leaving kudos / bookmarking / commenting!!!! I love and appreciate each and every one of you <3


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